Bess Rothenberg (she/her)
Board Chair
Bess Rothenberg is the Deputy Vice President of the Office of Strategy and Impact (OSI) at the Ford Foundation. She joined the foundation in 2016, to serve as the inaugural director of the Office of Strategy and Learning (OSL). As OSL director, she worked across its 11 global offices to strengthen Ford’s capacity as a learning institution, accompanying programs in strategy development, evaluation, cross-programmatic learning, and efforts to enhance Ford’s grantmaking operations to best meet grantee needs. Before joining the Ford Foundation in 2016, Rothenberg served as Deputy Director of Research and Evaluation at Wellspring Advisors, Senior Program Officer for Africa at the International Women’s Health Coalition, and Associate Director of Grants at the American Jewish World Service.
In addition to her work in philanthropy, Rothenberg has also served as assistant professor of applied sociology and African studies at Clemson University, and as associate director with Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights. She earned a PhD in sociology from the University of Virginia, was a Fulbright doctoral fellow at Humboldt University in Berlin, and earned her bachelor of arts in sociology from Boston University.
Phil Chung, Ph.D. (he/him)
Board Member
Phil Chung is the Senior Director for Research and Evaluation at the Colorado Health Foundation, based in Denver, CO. He is driven by a desire to turn lessons learned from research and evaluation into proactive policies and positive, lasting change. Phil joined the Colorado Health Foundation in 2022 to help design, develop, support, and evaluate the work encompassed in the Foundation’s advocacy, community solutions and locally focused priorities. Before that, Phil served as Mile High United Way’s senior director of evaluation and learning. He is backed by 20 years of experience in the evaluation field, occupying a range of roles at the Wallace Foundation, The Colorado Trust, and as a consultant focused on health research and community health. Throughout his career, Phil has looked for opportunities that align with his values and interests in advancing racial justice and community-based approaches. Phil is also on the board of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and has previously served on committees to protect and advance supports for immigrant and refugee communities. Phil received a Ph.D in Health and Behavioral Sciences from University of Colorado-Denver, an MSW from Columbia University, and a BA from Colorado College.
Somjen Frazer, Ph.D. (they/them)
Board Member
Somjen is the President and Principal Consultant for Strength in Numbers, based in New York, NY. They have over 20 years of experience conducting research, evaluation, and strategy and founded Strength in Numbers Consulting Group in 2010 to serve activists, service providers, and grantmakers. In their consulting, they provide rigorous research, evaluation, and philanthropic strategy that is driven by the priorities of affected communities. They lead the quantitative and methodological work at Strength in Numbers as well as serving as the chief executive. Somjen’s passion for participatory research is substantively influenced by marginalized communities and in service of social justice, which led them to start Strength in Numbers and continues to sustain their work to this day. They received a Ph.D. from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health in Sociomedical Sciences (with Sociology), an MLitt from Oxford University’s Nuffield College in Sociology, where they were a Rhodes Scholar, and a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University.