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Mission
The Foundation seeks to strengthen, promote,
and defend the centrality of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing
and to the well-being of diverse, fair, and democratic societies.
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The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation under the laws of the
State of New York, was formed on June 30, 1969, through the consolidation of
two existing foundations—the Avalon Foundation and the Old Dominion
Foundation. The Avalon Foundation had been established in 1940 by Ailsa
Mellon Bruce, daughter of Andrew W. Mellon. The Old Dominion Foundation
had been established in 1941 by Paul Mellon, son of Andrew W. Mellon.
When the two foundations were consolidated, the Foundation adopted the name The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to honor their father. At the end of 1969,
the assets of the Foundation totaled $273 million. By the end of 2017,
the total endowment was approximately $6.8 billion; annual grantmaking came to
approximately $302 million.
FOUNDATION PRESIDENTS
Elizabeth Alexander (2018–). Elizabeth
Alexander is the seventh president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
With more than two decades of experience leading innovative programs in
education, philanthropy, and beyond, Ms. Alexander builds partnerships at
Mellon to support the arts and humanities while strengthening educational
institutions and cultural organizations across the world.
Prior
to joining the Foundation, Ms. Alexander served as the director of Creativity
and Free Expression at the Ford Foundation. In this capacity, her work
focused on the intersection between the arts, social justice, and mass
incarceration. There, she co-designed the Art for Justice Fund—an
initiative that uses art and advocacy to address the crisis of mass
incarceration—and guided the organization in examining how the arts and visual
storytelling can empower
communities.
A
poet, essayist, and scholar, Ms. Alexander brings to the Mellon Foundation
extensive experience in higher education. She was the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon
Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University from 2015 until joining the
Foundation in 2018. Between 2000 and 2015, Ms. Alexander taught at Yale
University, where she was a professor in the departments of African American
Studies, American Studies, and English, helping rebuild the school's African
American Studies department while serving as its chair for four years. In
2015, she was appointed Yale University's inaugural Frederick Iseman Professor
of Poetry. At Smith College, Ms. Alexander was the Grace Hazard Conkling
Poet-in-Residence and the inaugural director of the Poetry Center. While
an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, she was awarded the
Quantrell Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
Ms.
Alexander's 2015 memoir, The Light of the World, was a
2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Her poetry and essays include Crave
Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990–2010 (2010), Power and
Possibility: Essays, Reviews, Interviews (2007), American
Sublime (2005), The Black Interior:
Essays (2004), Antebellum Dream Book (2001), Body of
Life (1996), and The Venus Hottentot (1990).
Accolades for her work include the Jackson Poetry Prize, the John Simon
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the George Kent Award, the National
Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and three Pushcart Prizes for Poetry.
She was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, for American
Sublime and for The Light of the World.
In 2009, Ms. Alexander composed and delivered a poem, "Praise Song
for the Day," for President Barack Obama's inauguration.
Ms.
Alexander earned a BA from Yale University, an MA from Boston University, and a
PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She holds honorary
doctorates from Yale University, Haverford College, Simmons College, and the
College of St. Benedict. Ms. Alexander is a chancellor of the Academy of
American Poets and serves on the board of the Pulitzer Prize.
Earl Lewis (2013–2018).
Earl Lewis became the sixth President of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in
March 2013. Under his guidance, the Foundation reaffirmed its commitment
to the humanities, the arts, and higher education by emphasizing the importance
of continuity and change.
A
noted social historian, Mr. Lewis has held faculty appointments at the
University of California at Berkeley (1984–89), and the University of Michigan
(1989–2004). He has championed the importance of diversifying the
academy, enhancing graduate education, re-visioning the liberal arts, exploring
the role of digital tools for learning, and connecting universities to their
communities.
Prior
to joining The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mr. Lewis served as Provost and
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Asa Griggs Candler Professor
of History and African American Studies at Emory University. As Provost, Lewis
led academic affairs and academic priority setting for the university.
He
is the author and co-editor of seven books, including The
African American Urban Experience: Perspectives from the Colonial Period
to the Present (with Joe William Trotter and Tera W. Hunter, Palgrave
Macmillan, 2004); Defending Diversity: Affirmative Action at the
University of Michigan (with Jeffrey S. Lehman and Patricia
Gurin, University of Michigan Press, 2004); Love on
Trial: An American Scandal in Black and White (with
Heidi Ardizzone, W. W. Norton, 2001); the award-winning To Make
Our World Anew: A History of African Americans (with
Robin D. G. Kelley, Oxford University Press, 2000); In Their
Own Interests: Race, Class and Power in 20th Century Norfolk (University
of California Press, 1991); as well as the 11-volume The Young
Oxford History of African Americans (with Robin D. G. Kelley,
Oxford University Press, 1995–1997); and the award-winning book series American
Crossroads (University of California Press).
A
native of Tidewater, Virginia, Mr. Lewis earned an undergraduate degree in
history and psychology from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and a PhD
in history from the University of Minnesota. He has been a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2008.
In
2015, Mr. Lewis was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Rutgers
University-Newark and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College;
he also received an honorary Doctor of Humanities from Concordia College in
2002; Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota in 2001;
and the Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award from the University of
Michigan in 1999.
Don Michael Randel (2006–2013).
Don Randel is a musicologist who attended Princeton University, where he
received bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in music. His
scholarly specialty is the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Spain
and France. As a music historian, Mr. Randel is widely published,
particularly on medieval liturgical chant, and he has also written on such
varied topics as Arabic music theory, Latin American popular music, and
fifteenth-century French music and poetry. In 1968, Mr. Randel joined the
Cornell University faculty in the department of music. He served for 32
years as a faculty member at Cornell, where he was also department chair,
vice-provost, and associate dean and then dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences. He became provost of Cornell University in 1995. From
2000 until he joined the Foundation in 2006, Mr. Randel held the position of
president of the University of Chicago. There he led efforts to
strengthen the humanities and the arts on campus, as well as a broad range of
interactions with the City of Chicago and a further strengthening of the
university's programs in the physical and biomedical sciences and its
relationship with Argonne National Laboratory. He also led the
university's campaign for $2 billion, the largest in its history. Mr.
Randel served as the editor of the Journal of the American
Musicology Society. He is also editor of the Harvard
Dictionary of Music 4th ed., published in 2003, the Harvard
Biographical Dictionary of Music, published in 1996, and
the Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
published in 1999.
William G. Bowen (1988–2006).
Educated at Denison and Princeton Universities, Mr. Bowen joined the Princeton
faculty in 1958. An influential labor economist and teacher, he became
Princeton's provost in 1967, and served as its president from 1972 to
1988. His achievements at the university include overseeing the
transition to coeducation, establishing residential colleges, promoting
increased diversity, and invigorating the biological sciences as a major
institutional commitment. He was also a driving force behind American
higher education's opposition to the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Mr. Bowen's tenure at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation was marked by further increases
in the scale of the Foundation's activities, with annual appropriations
reaching $220 million in 2000. To ensure that Mellon's grantmaking
activities would be better informed and more effective while also following his
interest in studying questions central to higher education and philanthropy, he
created an in-house research program to investigate doctoral education,
collegiate admissions, independent research libraries, and charitable
nonprofits. Mr. Bowen's interest in the application of information
technology to humanistic scholarship led to a range of initiatives including
the Foundation-sponsored creation of JSTOR (a searchable electronic archive of
the full runs of core journals in many fields), ARTstor Inc. (a repository of
high-quality digitized works of art and related materials for teaching and
research), and Ithaka Harbors, Inc. (an organization launched to accelerate the
adoption of productive and efficient uses of information technology for the
benefit of higher education). Mr. Bowen was the author or co-author of 20
books, including Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education (University
of Virginia Press, 2005) with Martin A. Kurzweil and Eugene M. Tobin, which
received the American Education Research Association (AERA) 2006 Outstanding
Book Award; Reclaiming the Game: College Sports and Educational Values (Princeton
University Press, 2003) with Sarah A. Levin; The Game
of Life: College Sports and Educational Values (Princeton
University Press, 2001) with James Shulman; and the Grawemeyer
Award-winning The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of
Considering Race in College and University Admissions (Princeton
University Press, 1998) with Derek Bok.
John E. Sawyer (1975–1987).
After graduating from Williams College and Harvard University, Mr. Sawyer
taught economics at Harvard and Yale before serving as president of Williams
from 1961 to 1973. At Williams, he oversaw major changes in the college's
structure and character, including its transition to coeducation, the
elimination of its fraternities, and the provision of greater access for
minority and economically less advantaged students. As president of The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mr. Sawyer guided the Foundation's
evolution. During his 12-year tenure, the Foundation's total annual
grants rose from $40 million to $70 million. In addition to continuing
the Foundation's support of humanistic scholarship and institutions of higher
education, Mr. Sawyer promoted the improvement and modernization of the nation's
research libraries and cooperation among them. He also provided key
leadership in the fields of population studies and ecology. In 1994,
following Mr. Sawyer's long-standing interests in multidisciplinary inquiry,
the Foundation launched a series of seminars designed to promote comparative
research on the historical and cultural sources of contemporary
developments. This program was named for Mr. Sawyer following his death
in 1995.
Nathan M. Pusey (1971–1975).
After receiving undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Harvard University, Mr.
Pusey taught classics, literature, and history at Lawrence College (now
Lawrence University), Scripps College, and Wesleyan University. He served
as president of Lawrence College from 1944 to 1953, and of Harvard University
from 1953 to 1971. At Harvard, he oversaw the inauguration of new
programs particularly in international and area studies, the introduction of
need-blind financial aid, the revival of the Divinity School, significant
growth in the university's financial assets, and major improvement of its
physical plant. Mr. Pusey was a trustee of the Avalon Foundation and a
founding trustee of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. When Charles
Hamilton retired in 1971, Mr. Pusey assumed the Foundation's presidency.
He deepened Mellon's focus on supporting the best in higher education and
humanistic scholarship. Mr. Pusey authored The Age
of the Scholar: Observations on Education in a Troubled Decade (Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, 1963) and American
Higher Education, 1945-1970: A Personal Report (Harvard
University Press, 1978). In 1963, he also produced what came to be known
as the "Pusey Report," a landmark study of theological education.
Charles S. Hamilton, Jr.
(1969–1971). A noted expert in labor law and long-serving
philanthropic executive, Mr. Hamilton led the Foundation in its formative
years. In 1935, following his education at Princeton University and Yale
Law School, Mr. Hamilton joined the firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, where he
became a partner in 1945. He retired from legal practice in 1958.
In January 1960, Mr. Hamilton joined the Avalon Foundation as vice president,
and was elected president the following year. While administering
Avalon's affairs, he also played a leading role in the arrangements that led to
the establishment of the Mellon Foundation in July 1969.
Foundation Officers
Elizabeth
Alexander, President
Michele S. Warman,
Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel and
Secretary
Scott
Taylor, Chief Investment Officer
Office of the President
Elizabeth
Alexander, President
Julie B. Ehrlich, Program
Advisor and Chief of Staff
Ehsan
Jami, Senior Executive Assistant
Michael Shattner, Senior
Executive Assistant
Josie
Hodson, Research Associate
Yasmeen
Allen Martei, Manager of Strategic Initiatives and Planning
Amy Erwin, Senior
Event and Meeting Planner
Rachel
Elizabeth Zeiss, Event and Meeting Planner
Shonda
Carter, Executive Assistant
PROGRAMS
AND RESEARCH
Office of the Executive Vice President for Programs and
Research
Camilla
Somers, Manager of Strategic Initiatives and Planning
PROGRAMS
Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities
Armando
I. Bengochea, Senior Program Officer and Director of the Mellon Mays
Undergraduate Fellowship Program
Dianne
Harris, Senior Program Officer
Eugene M.
Tobin, Senior Program Officer
Sharon Blackwell,
Executive Assistant
Lee Bynum, Senior
Program Associate and Associate Director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate
Fellowship Program
Emma
Taati, Senior Program Associate
Mary
Bates, Program Associate
Susan I.
Dady, Program Associate
Elizabeth Foley, Program
Associate
Martha Sullivan, Program
Associate
Beatriz Dal Poz, Program
Assistant
Yoona
Hong, Program Assistant
Chris Jo, Program
Assistant
…….
Mellon family
….. The Mellon
family is a wealthy and influential American family
from Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, whose members
include one of the longest-serving U.S.
Treasury Secretaries.
History[edit]
The family fortune originated with Mellon
Bank, founded 1869. They became principal investors and majority
owners of Gulf Oil (founded
1901 becoming Chevron Corporation in 1985), Alcoa (since
1886), The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (since
1970), Koppers (since
1912), New York Shipbuilding (1899–1968)
and Carborundum
Corporation,[1] as
well as their major financial and ownership influence on Westinghouse,[2] H. J.
Heinz, Newsweek, U.S.
Steel, Credit Suisse First Boston and General
Motors.
The family also founded the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.,
donating both art works and funds, and is a patron to the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Yale
University, the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti, and
with art the University of Virginia. Carnegie Mellon University, and
its Mellon College of Science, is
named in honor of the family, as well as for its founder, Andrew
Carnegie, who was a close associate of the Mellons.
The family's founding patriarch was Judge Thomas
Mellon (1813–1908),[3] the
son of Andrew Mellon and Rebecca Wauchob, who were Scotch-Irish farmers
from Camp Hill Cottage, Lower Castletown, parish of Cappagh, County
Tyrone, Ireland and emigrated to what is now the Pittsburgh suburb of north-central Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The
family can be divided into four branches: the descendants of Thomas Alexander
Mellon Jr, of James Ross Mellon, of Andrew William Mellon, and of Richard
Beatty Mellon.
Prominent
members[edit]
· Thomas
Mellon (1813–1908), a judge and founder of the Mellon
Bank who married Sarah Jane Negley of Pittsburgh. As a boy he
decided to abandon his parents' farming lifestyle for law and banking in the
city after reading Benjamin
Franklin's autobiography.
· Andrew William Mellon (1855–1937), one of the
longest-serving U.S. Treasury secretaries in history and also the namesake
of Washington,
D.C.'s Andrew Mellon Building and Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium.
· Richard Beatty Mellon (1858–1933), a
banker, industrialist and philanthropist, who married Jennie Taylor King
· Richard King Mellon (1899–1970), a
financier, general, and philanthropist, who married Constance Prosser McCaulley
· Sarah
Mellon (1903–1965), a including Mellon
Bank and major investments in Gulf Oil and Alcoa, her
husband is Alan Magee Scaife
· Cordelia Scaife May (1928–2005), a
famous recluse and funder of multiple anti-immigration organizations. [4]
· Richard Mellon Scaife (1932–2014), the
chief sponsor of the Heritage Foundation and publisher of
the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review since
1970.[5] first
marriage was to Frances L. Gilmore (born December 2, 1934), second marriage was
to Margaret "Ritchie" Battle (1947–2005)
· Timothy
Mellon (b. 1942), chairman and majority owner of Pan Am
Systems, a Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based
transportation holding company.
·
James Ross ("Jay") Mellon II (b. 1942), an author of
books about Abraham
Lincoln, Slavery in America and his family's founding patriarch, Thomas
Mellon. According to an interview with the Swiss weekly newspaper,
"SonntagsZeitung",
he travels permanently in order to legally minimize taxes.[6]
· Christopher Mellon (b. 1958), the former
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in the Clinton and Bush
Administrations; former minority staff director of the US Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence, adjunct professor at Georgetown University; graduate
of Yale Graduate School with an M.A. in international relations; private equity
investor; self-proclaimed number one fan of ancient aliens and National
Security Affairs Advisor at To The Stars Academy.
· Matthew
Taylor Mellon II (1964–2018), who was a chairman of the
Republican Party Finance of New York and served as a regent director of finance
for the Republican National Committee. Mr. Mellon founded or participated in
multiple start ups such as Jimmy Choo, Harrys of London, Hanley Mellon, Marquis
Jets, Arrival Aviation and Challenge Capital Partners.
175
Years Later, The Mellons Have Never Been Richer. How'd They Do It?
…
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