Who We Are

Our Team

Golfers, educational innovators, technologists, parents, community and business leaders, and entrepreneurs striving to build a cooperative effort among K-12 schools, non-profit organizations and higher education that will transform lives and encourage new strategies and policies that strengthen and reinforce the relevance and importance of sports-based youth development.

Key People

Farrell Evans is an award-winning journalist who has written for Sports Illustrated, Golf Magazine and ESPN.COM. He is currently a regular contributor for Sports Illustrated and Andscape. A former Florida A&M University golfer, Evans co-founded in 2015 The Bridge Golf Foundation, a Harlem-based organization that uses the game of golf to improve outcomes for young men of color.

Sam Weiss works in institutional client relations at StonePine Asset Management. Before joining StonePine, he worked at Fiera Capital, where he focused on business development, and at BlackRock, where he partnered with institutions to deliver retirement investment solutions. Sam began his career at Jefferies LLC in Equity Sales and Trading. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2017. Sam was an All Conference four-year letterman and co-captain of the Occidental College golf team.

Nancy Degnan earned her M.P.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. After that, Dr. Degnan served as Assistant Dean at SIPA and as the Associate Director at the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She was also the Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC). At CERC, Dr. Degnan spearheaded initiatives and programming in education, training and applied research STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Her research and writing have focused on community-based initiatives in education, sustainable development and redevelopment, as well as microfinance and enterprise development. She is also a member of Columbia Business School’s Deming Board, Chazen Institute.

Degnan spearheaded STEM initiatives at The Bridge Golf Foundation and oversaw collaborations between the Foundation, the Columbia Water Center at Columbia University, and Eagle Academy schools that resulted in a multi-year Water Fair that was supported by the Heisman Trophy Trust.

Bill Holmes is a former University of Maine golfer who has extensive experience in nonprofit management and after school programming. He has held positions at the Nonprofit Finance Fund and Dream (Harlem RBI), where he was a financial analyst and director of Financial Planning and Operations.

Bill earned his M.A. in Nonprofit Management/Community Development Finance from the New School. Bill is now the Chief Operating Officer at the Global Community Charter School, where one of his duties is oversight of after school and out of school time programming.

Jennifer Powell leads program evaluation and impact measurement for Momentum. She has been in the nonprofit world for 20 years, working in both the grant-making and fundraising fields. Jen earned an M.A. in Psychometrics from Fordham University, which has helped her immensely in the current philanthropic environment where impact measurement has become commonplace; her B.A. is in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Board of Directors

Farrell Evans
Co-Founder and Executive Director

Sam Weiss
Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board
StonePine Asset Management

Bill Holmes
Co-Founder and Treasurer
Global Community Charter School

Sean Gardner
William Blair & Company

John Fizer
J.P. Morgan Private Bank

Michelle Fizer Peterson
Bank Street College of Education, Development and Alumni Relations

Our Partners

Quaker Ridge Golf Club logo
Quaker Ridge Golf Club
Eagle Academy Foundation Logo
The Eagle Academy Foundation
Columbia Water Center logo
Columbia Water Center