Staff

Staff

Diana Barrett founded The Fledgling Fund in 2005 after a long career at Harvard University, where she taught in both the Harvard Business School and the School of Public Health. At Harvard Business School, she was a member of the Social Enterprise core group where she taught Business Leadership in the Social Sector as well as in various executive programs. Her areas of interest at Harvard included the use of public private partnerships for global poverty reduction and specifically, in addressing the social and personal burden of disease such as HIV/AIDS. She received both her Masters in Business Administration and her Doctorate in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. The Fledgling Fund provides an opportunity to further those interests by focusing on innovative approaches to complex social issues including the use of media to ignite social change. In addition to leading The Fledgling Fund, Diana serves on the Boards of the International Center for Photography, the Institute for Philanthropy in the U.K., the Social Change Film Forum at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Advisory Board of the Acumen Fund.

Sheila Leddy is the Executive Director at The Fledgling Fund. She has worked with The Fledgling Fund since its inception and has played a key role in developing its overall strategy in close collaboration with the Fund's president and board. She plays a leadership role in both its Community Funding and Creative Media Initiatives, developing grant guidelines, reviewing and developing projects and assessing their potential to advance The Fledgling Fund's mission. Prior to The Fledging Fund, she was a senior associate with The Crimson Group, Inc., where she provided project management and research assistance as well as participated in the development of curricula for The Crimson Group's customized management education programs for physician leaders and senior managers of large healthcare organizations. She also was a research assistant at Harvard Business School where she developed curriculum materials that examined the corporate role in the social sector. Sheila received her MBA from Boston University Graduate School of Management with a concentration in Health Care and received her BA from the University of Notre Dame. 

Emily Verellen is the Director of Programs and Communications at The Fledgling Fund.  She joined the Fledgling Fund in 2008.  Emily provides strategic communications and expanded outreach and audience engagement support for the Creative Media Initiative.  Emily is the co-founder of The Binti Pamoja Center, a women's rights and reproductive health center in Nairobi, Kenya.  In 2006, she received a grant from The Fledgling Fund to publish a book about The Binti Pamoja Center, "LightBox", which features photographs, stories and autobiographies from the teenage members of the Center. All of the funds earned through the sales of LightBox support The Binti Pamoja Center Scholarship Fund.  Emily graduated from American University with a BA in International Development, Anthropology and Communications and from the London School of Economics with an MA in International Development and Population Studies.