Jamie Allison is Executive Director of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund and has served on the board of trustees of The Whitman Institute since 2014. I have worked in philanthropy for two decades and have been honored to lead the Walter & Elise Haas Fund (W&EHF) for just over four years. For over eight…
Years ago, when The Whitman Institute board put our spend out in motion, we envisioned our final retreat. A large, warm gathering of colleagues who had become friends and family would rest and reflect under the beautiful stars and trees of California’s northern coast. There would be toasts over fire pits, connection, inquiry, dancing, and…
It’s hard to believe that we’re at the end of 2021 and that The Whitman Institute will be closing down in a matter of months. This last stretch of the road is certainly not what we originally envisioned when we decided to spend out a decade ago. We closed the office a year earlier than…
The President and his mob’s attack on our democracy at the US Capitol this week was horrific, disturbing, awful, and scary. It illuminated in stark fashion how close our broken democracy has come to the breaking point, how racism and white privilege manifest in our seats of power, and how words that demonize, demean and…