Select a staff member to view:


Rusty M. Stahl, Executive Director

Sophia Silao, Associate Director

Rebecca Schumer, Program Assistant

Past EPIP Staff and Consultants









Rusty M. Stahl
Executive Director

Rusty M. Stahl is founding executive director of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP). EPIP is a national network of young and new philanthropic professionals that seeks to strengthen the next generation of grantmakers, in order to advance effective social justice philanthropy. Rusty was part of a group of foundation professionals and trustees who started the group together in 2001 after meeting up at a Council on Foundations conference. Rusty took on the role of coordinating the group while working his foundation job.

Before beginning work for EPIP in 2002, Mr. Stahl worked as a Program Associate at the Ford Foundation, in the Governance and Civil Society Unit. At Ford, he was honored to support grantmaking that aims to expand social justice philanthropy, increase the impact of community organizing, and nurture the health of the nonprofit sector.

Rusty holds an M.A. in Philanthropic Studies from Indiana University, where he studied at the Center on Philanthropy. He came to the Center as a participant in the Jane Addams Fellowship. During his graduate studies, Rusty was one of the founders of the Central Indiana Jobs with Justice coalition. As an undergraduate at George Washington University, he worked as an AmeriCorps member serving local senior citizens, and volunteered in a variety of political, social and economic justice efforts.

Stahl is a long-standing board member of Idealist.org, the global nonprofit web portal. He represents EPIP on the Next Generation Advisory Committee of the Council on Foundations, the Board of the Nonprofit Workforce Coalition and in the leadership of the Social Justice Philanthropy Collaborative. Rusty sits on advisory committees for the Third Millennium Philanthropy and Leadership Initiative at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, and The Grantmaking School at the Johnson Center at Grand Valley State University.


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Sophia Silao
Associate Director

Sophia Silao joined the EPIP staff in October, 2008. She brings ten years of grantmaking and leadership experience in the philanthropic community.

Most recently she was program officer at the North Star Fund, a New York City-based community foundation that funds social justice organizing work. There she oversaw the overall grantmaking and worked closely with foundation stakeholders and community activists to shape its programmatic initiatives. She worked on the foundation’s donor-advised funds and developed its technical assistance program to offer organizational development support to nascent community-based organizations.

Prior to North Star Fund, Sophia worked for seven years at the New York Women’s Foundation where, in addition to grantmaking, she coordinated the foundation’s annual public education and advocacy forum, and a series of grantee technical assistance workshops.

Sophia has served on two committees of the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers: Increasing and Diversifying Philanthropy Committee and the City Connect Special Committee, the latter of which facilitates dialogue between local funders and government officials.

Sophia is a member of the New York City Chapter of Asian American/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) and served as chapter co-chair from 2004-2008. She currently serves is on the board of CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, and is a 2008 participant in the CORO New York Leadership Center’s Immigrant Civic Leadership Program.


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Rebecca Schumer
Membership and Program Manager

Rebecca Schumer came to EPIP as an intern in January 2008 and recently joined staff full-time this past September 2009. In her current position, Rebecca oversees EPIP’s individual and institutional membership recruitment and retention efforts; she works to bring all of the benefits and discounts of an EPIP membership to young foundation professionals nationwide. Additionally, she serves as lead coordinator for EPIP’s brand-new research project called, “The Generating Change Campaign,” as well as assists with various fundraising efforts and financial management.

Rebecca is a recent graduate of New York University, receiving a Bachelors of Science from The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development in May 2009. Specializing in cultural studies, non-profit management, and social and public policy, Rebecca also received a minor from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Believing strongly in the tenants of social justice, Rebecca brings to her work in the philanthropic sector a background of direct service and non-profit engagement, and a true passion for global change.


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Acknowledgement of Past Staff
EPIP wishes to recognize the personnel, consultants, fellows, and interns who have contributed to the vitality of the organization since it was launched in September 2002. These include:

Christopher Anderson
Administrative Assistant

Sarah Ashcroft
Graduate Fellow

K. Emerson Beyer
Program Consultant

Omisade Burney-Scott
Program Consultant

Elizabeth Cuccaro
NYC Chapter Organizer

Milano Harden
Program Consultant

Jen Kramer-Wine
Program Consultant

Kristina Lucien
Intern

Bodi Luse
Graduate Fellow

Erika Scott
Post-Bachaloriate Fellow

Sam Stegeman
Program Consultant


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