Feeling & Healing: Trauma-Informed Grantmaking

Dr. Samantha Matlin, a clinical/community psychologist, is the VP of Learning and Community Impact at the Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation. In her role, she provides training and consultation to build evaluation capacity in community-based organizations and city and state agencies. She leads the RISE Partnership, an initiative that supports nonprofit organizations in Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. The Partnership provides nonprofits with resources and training to strengthen organizational effectiveness and ensure a greater impact on social, economic, health, and educational conditions in communities, including the effects of racism, intergenerational poverty and trauma. She is the former Special Advisor to the Commissioner at the City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services where she contributed to the formulation of high priority programmatic initiatives and policy across the behavioral health system. She also teaches several courses at the University of Pennsylvania public health master’s program and is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Yale University School of Medicine. She is committed to improving the health status of communities by improving the effectiveness of health and social service systems, with a focus on how neighborhood factors contribute to health.

Maria Cherry Rangel (LA), Director of Strategic Initiatives, Foundation for Louisiana Maria works towards resourcing and shaping FLL's future, and utilizes her expertise in arts and culture, racial justice, and LGBTQ organizing to inform FFL's programs. Maria Cherry Rangel is a New Orleans based cultural organizer, philanthropy strategist, equity coach, and organizational capacity building specialist. Her work focuses on interrupting systemic bias in philanthropy and support for grassroots arts ecologies, communities of color, LGBTQ communities, and artists who have faced significant disinvestment by the arts funding infrastructure.