All of United Way of the Bay Area's work is driven by community volunteers. These volunteers sit on our Board of Directors and special committees, working with our staff to direct your investment into top-performing community programs in the Bay Area.
Our staff also partners with businesses, non profit and government organizations, and foundations to identify opportunities for collaboration across these sectors and develop innovative solutions to issues facing the Bay Area.
Anne Wilson
Chief Executive Officer
Anne joined United Way of the Bay Area (UWBA) in 1980, and was named the first female CEO in 2000. Under her leadership, UWBA has transformed into a community-impact organization that brings together resources and people to address the Bay Area’s most pressing challenges. To these ends, Anne has championed several UWBA programs, including:
- Earn It! Keep It! Save It! Bay Area, which last year helped 46,000 hardworking families claim $35.6 million in valuable tax credits and access asset-building resources. Since its inception in 2003, the program has processed more than 114,000 returns for low-wage families, putting $107 million in refunds back in their pockets and back into the local economy.
- 2-1-1, the three-digit phone number that connects people with community services for every day needs and in times of disaster.
- Raising A Reader, which each year helps over 10,000 Bay Area preschoolers build critical early literacy skills so they can succeed in school and life.
In addition, UWBA supports another 250 Bay Area community programs with expertise, funding, and other resources.
Anne has a Master's of Social Welfare degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University. She lives in San Rafael, California, with her husband Richard Cohn and their two children.
Eric McDonnell
Executive Vice President
Eric McDonnell is a committed and passionate advocate for children, families, and communities. As executive vice president, Eric provides strategic, transformational and operational leadership to achieve UWBA’s goals, set priorities and deliver on the organization’s mission – to be the catalyst that enables people to strengthen their communities by investing in one another. Eric drives UWBA's efforts to ensure that every child has the opportunity to reach his or her academic potential, and families achieve economic self-sufficiency, while making Bay Area neighborhoods safer, stronger places to live.
Prior to joining UWBA, Eric served as executive director of the Audrey L. Smith Developmental Center in San Francisco, a childcare and social services provider for more than 250 families. His decade of work at the center lent itself to the issues he now oversees for UWBA. Eric holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco. A husband and father of three school-age children, he loves to bowl and play basketball.
Juliet Clothier
Chief Financial Officer
Juliet Clothier merged her talents with UWBA’s Finance and Gift Processing Team in September 2005, and was named chief financial officer in early 2007. Her focus is the continuous improvement of internal controls, reporting and operational efficiencies. Juliet works closely with the UWBA’s Finance and Audit Committees to ensure Board-level oversight of financial operations while capitalizing on the extraordinary talents and experience of these volunteers. She has a passion for supporting all UWBA departments in their budget management to ensure efficiency and improved financial and non-financial results. Juliet’s professional history spans a variety of industries including consulting, contracting, wholesale distribution, and private wealth management. Her experience includes several accounting software conversions and implementations, mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning, budget and audit management, complex internal and external reporting, and sophisticated policy and procedure development. Juliet has an MBA from Sonoma State University and lives in San Francisco.
Katherine Akos
Interim Chief Development Officer
Katherine brings more than twenty years of experience as a nonprofit executive and fundraising professional to United Way, with a focus on advising performing arts, educational, healthcare and civic institutions. As interim chief development officer, Katherine will lead United Way’s development team, providing strategic planning and support for the annual campaign.
She currently maintains a professional consulting practice for nonprofits. Representative clients include: San Francisco Ballet, California Shakespeare Theater, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Chabot Space & Science Center, and Legal aid Society-Employment Law Center.
Previously, Katherine held senior management positions with the Fort Worth, San Francisco and Detroit symphony orchestras. She was previously Vice President for Advancement with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and held the same position with the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.
Ms. Akos received her Bachelor of Arts degree in music (violin performance) from Amherst College, where she graduated magna cum laude, and she was selected for the inaugural class of the League of American Orchestras’ prestigious Orchestra Management Fellowship Program.
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Bernadette Robertson
Chief Human Resources Officer
As Chief Human Resources Officer for United Way of the Bay Area, Bernadette Robertson brings the human resources expertise to enable and support the staff of UWBA in the achievement of organization’s important mission. Bernadette is responsible for all areas of Human Resources, including employee relations, compensation and benefits, recruitment, and training and development.
Bernadette has had an extensive and successful career combining human resources expertise, with effective strategic business management and operations experience. Bernadette is a senior HR professional with more than 20 years of experience working at both, growth stage entrepreneurial ventures, as well as, established firms, and non-profit organizations. As Vice President of Human Resources at both Solidus Networks, Inc. and NextCard, she led HR as the firms grew from early stage ventures to successful large enterprises. She also held various HR roles at Bank of America, Providian Bancorp, and Kaiser Permanente, serving as a strategic business partner, and providing critical internal Human Resources management.
Bernadette is currently an advisor to Algentis, an employee administration services firm for small and medium-sized businesses, providing a service offering which integrates HR Expertise & Compliance, Payroll Processing, Employee Benefits, and Employment Insurance. She is also serving as an advisor to several start-up organizations.
In addition, Bernadette has been an instructor with the Professional Development Program at the University of California at Berkeley, and her volunteer experience has included providing mentoring services in several non-profit organizations. She has also served on the board of a non-profit organization serving homeless pregnant women.
Carole M. Watson
Chief Investment Officer
Carole M. Watson is the driving force behind United Way of the Bay Area's focus on helping low-income Bay Area residents obtain health insurance and achieve economic independence. With more than 20 years of management experience at community-based organizations, including United Way and the Bay Area Urban League (where she was President and CEO), Carole is spearheading several initiatives aimed at reducing poverty, increasing employment, improving health care access and enhancing quality of life.
Carole holds a Master's degree in social work from Wayne State University. She participated in a United Way of America/Anne E. Casey Foundation three-year fellowship at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, which included the completion of a program focused on family self-sufficiency.
Edward A. Schoenberger
Executive Director, United Way HELPLINK and 2-1-1
Ed has devoted his career to addressing social policy and community challenges. As executive director of United Way HELPLINK, he directs the operation of United Way’s comprehensive, regional Information & Referral service, which connects people with community resources through its toll-free, multilingual phone number (800-273-6222); print directories; and online searchable database. He also leads United Way’s efforts to expand and promote 2-1-1 phone service throughout the Bay Area.
Ed served as president of the Northern California Council for the Community from 1993 until 2005, when it was acquired by United Way. Prior to that, he was group vice president for the UWBA, directing needs assessment and program design for regional, county, and neighborhood activities. He has also served as research associate and deputy director of the Institute for Local Self-Government and was the education coordinator of the New Careers Program at Neighborhood House in Richmond, California. He holds a B.A. from Antioch College and a Masters in education and history from the University of Chicago.
Ginny Nichols
Director of Special Projects
Ginny has more than 30 years of administrative and management experience encompassing finance, human resources, operations, manufacturing and production. She joined UWBA in May 2002. As director of special projects and assistant to the CEO, she directs Executive Office operations and the CEO’s calendar; manages Board of Directors communications, agenda building and recordkeeping, and stewards compliance with United Way of America’s membership reporting requirements. She also leads special projects on behalf of the CEO and in this capacity serves on many cross-functional teams.
Prior to United Way, Ginny was associate publisher-operations for Dance Magazine. Before that, she worked at the Denver Public Library as assistant to the city librarian and later as financial analyst. Her earlier career includes 15 years in Denver’s daily newspapers, primarily as a human resources generalist. During that time she enthusiastically served as the coordinator of several United Way campaigns. |
