Chief Executive Officer

Anne joined United Way of the Bay Area in 1980, and was named the first female CEO in 2000. Under her leadership, United Way of the Bay Area has transformed into a community-impact organization that brings together resources and people to create pathways out of poverty. To these ends, Anne has championed several programs, including:

SparkPoint Centers, which work with families and individuals to create personal financial plans that help achieve their goals. Instead of providing a one-time “hand out,” SparkPoint partners with families for multiple years, providing a full-range of services to help manage credit, grow income and build assets.

Earn It! Keep It! Save It! Bay Area, which last year helped 47,000 hardworking families claim $47.4 million in valuable tax credits and access asset-building resources. Since its inception in 2003, the program has processed more than 164,000 returns for low-wage families, putting $154 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.

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.

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 our goals. He sets priorities and delivers on the organization’s mission. Eric drives United Way of the Bay Area’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 United Way of the Bay Area, 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 United Way of the Bay Area. 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.

Chief Financial Officer

Juliet Clothier merged her talents with United Way of the Bay Area’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 United Way of the Bay Area’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 United Way of the Bay Area 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.

Chief Development Officer

As Chief Development Officer, Stuart Canning is responsible for all our fundraising efforts including raising money for United Way grants and programs such as SparkPoint, 211 and Earn It! Keep It! Save It!. He manages a team that works with more than 50,000 donors and conducts hundreds of workplace campaigns throughout the Bay Area.

Stuart has a diverse background in development that spans 15 years working for and serving on the boards of Arts, Education and Community organizations at a national and international level. Early in his career, Stuart worked for United Way Capital Area in Austin, Texas, before joining Brown University, where he lead Brown’s international advancement programs in Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada.

He has subsequently worked for Stanford University as the Associate Dean for External Relations in the School of Humanities and Sciences, as a fundraising consultant in Europe and most recently as Associate Director of Development, overseeing all individual giving programs with the San Francisco Symphony. Originally from England, Stuart is a graduate of Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Kansas. He is fluent in both French and German.

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 United Way of the Bay Area 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 adviser 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 nonprofit organizations. She has also served on the board of a nonprofit organization serving homeless pregnant women.

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 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.

Executive Director, 211

Ed has devoted his career to addressing social policy and community challenges. As executive director of 211, 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 searchable online database. With his leadership, we have been able to expand and promote 211 phone service to cover all Bay Area residents.

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 United Way of the Bay Area, 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.

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 United Way of the Bay Area 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 record keeping, 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.