Marci B. Sternheim

Principal

Sternheim Consulting

Marci Sternheim, Sternheim Consulting, is a broadly experienced and deeply knowledgeable independent consultant dedicated to the success and effectiveness of foundations, nonprofit organizations and academic institutions.  Her consulting practice – specializing in governance, leadership development, capacity building, organizational effectiveness, program design, and family and staff dynamics – evolved from her professional experiences.

Her career trajectory began with scholarship and teaching at Yale and Wesleyan, moved into university administration at Yale (where she was the chief staff liaison to the Yale Corporation), then nonprofit organization leadership as the Founding Executive Director of the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale. She left the university to become President of the Dibner Fund, a $100 million family foundation, where she directed all aspects of its giving to programs in the history of science and technology, science education, humanitarian aid, peaceful coexistence, the preservation of water resources, and Jewish heritage and culture. Later, as an internal consultant to the Helmsley Charitable Trust, she developed a $45 million annual strategic grantmaking program for the Trust’s work in Israel.

Marci is a graduate of Colgate University and she holds a doctorate in Spanish and Latin American literature from Yale University. She is a certified mediator, a BoardSource-trained governance consultant, and a Support Center-trained Interim Executive Director. Throughout her career, she has served on a wide variety of nonprofit boards. Currently, she is a board member and Governance Committee Chair of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), think tank in Washington, DC.