CORE VALUES
Our Values reflect how we want our staff to operate, as individuals and as a team. These values are central to our culture, and are critical for moving us most quickly towards our goals.
- Passion for our cause — we are idealistic, bold thinkers; creative, and fun.
- Discipline — there is rigor, focus and urgency to the way we approach our goals, and we take personal responsibility for achieving them. We work in a responsive and efficient manner to support our team, the mission, and the leadership of our organization.
- Integrity — we are respectful, open and honest with each other and in our community, and we ensure alignment between our actions and our beliefs.
OUR TEAM
Founder & Executive Director
Nancy Farese
Nancy Richards Farese is originally from Carrollton, Georgia and now lives in Marin County, California with her husband, Bob Farese, and 5 children. She is a social documentary photographer (www.nancyfaresephotography.com ) and Founder of PhotoPhilanthropy which promotes and connects photographers with non-profit organizations around the world to tell the stories that drive action for social change. Her work has been published in print media such as Time Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Marin IJ, The Anniston Star and The Financial Times, and in association with a wide range of charitable organizations including The International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, The Carter Center, The Infectious Disease Institutes in Uganda, Living Goods and Right to Play.
Director, Activist Awards and Exhibitions
Kathleen Hennessy
Kathleen Hennessy brings over 25 years of photography experience to PhotoPhilanthropy. Prior to her role here, she was the director of photography for the San Francisco Chronicle. She was photography editor of the Chronicle’s 2005 Pulitzer Prize winning entry. Kathleen served as a staff photography editor in the Clinton White House, the Washingtonian magazine and USA Today.
Her contributions to nonprofit organizations include; photographer on medical missions for Operation Smile and Smile Train in Romania, Vietnam, Gaza and China; a coordinator for the National Geographic’s Photo Camp, a photography program for underprivileged children, and a faculty member of Somosfoto, a workshop for Latin American professional photographers in Miami, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.
Kathleen was a Knight Fellow at Ohio University, where she earned a masters degree in journalism. She has taught photojournalism at Ohio University, San Francisco State University, City College of San Francisco and the University of California-Berkeley.
Program & Administrative Coordinator
Nina Novasic
Nina Novasic recently graduated from the University of San Francisco with a BBA in Accounting and a minor in African Studies.
Born and raised in San Francisco she has a natural connection and commitment to the local non-profit community. She also has a strong desire to learn about and work with international non-profit organizations. Nina focused on international aid and development in her undergraduate degree and plans to get her MA in International Studies.
She has a great interest in photography and is working to improve her own skills behind the lens.
Director of Marketing
Laura Thompson
Laura Thompson brings 20+ years of experience in executive marketing, strategy and business development roles with technology, health care and non-profit organizations. She has worked with a variety of prominent companies and been a founder and/or key member of the executive team in numerous Silicon Valley start-ups. Her work in the for-profit realm has been with companies that include; Kodak, ROLM/IBM, Tandem Computers, Aurum Software, Sylantro Systems, Rubiconsoft and Happy Nueron. In 2007, while living overseas, she helped to establish a non-profit organization devoted to educating “at risk” teens in the prevention of HIV/AIDS and consulted on marketing and earned income strategies with a variety of non-profits. She has worked with non-profit organizations such as, Access.org.nl, the Center for Technology and Aging (Public Health Institute) , NEXT VILLAGE, Shout-it-Now.org, Shanti.org, among others in the Bay Area and overseas.
After spending several years working in the Netherlands and South Africa she has returned to her home of San Francisco to resume non-profit work and return to her love and early interest in photography and PhotoPhilanthropy allows her to combine the two.
Laura graduated Cum Laude with a B.S. from Florida State University in business administration with a marketing focus with completed minors in computer science and communications.
Communications and Exhibitons Manager
Christy Wiles
Christy Wiles is originally from North Yarmouth, Maine. She holds an MA degree in Theory of Contemporary Art from the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) and a BA in Spanish and Latin American Literature from Reed College. At SFAI, Christy wrote her MA Thesis on Alfredo Jaar’s The Rwanda Project, looking specifically at the impact of photographic representations of Africa in the American media. Christy helped found the San Francisco-based digital photography publication, Once Magazine. Before relocating to San Francisco, she worked in New York with the Aperture Foundation, the International Center of Photography, and UnionDocs. Christy is thrilled to be working with PhotoPhilanthropy on communications and exhibitions.
