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President/CEO
 David J. Maurrasse, Ph.D.
Dr. David Maurrasse is the President, CEO, and Founder of Marga Incorporated, a global consulting firm dedicated to forging and strengthening pathways to take on the great issues of the twenty-first century through cross-sector partnerships, philanthropy, strategy, and management. Marga serves as a partnership catalyst bringing together stakeholders across sectors and across national boundaries to address shared concerns. By strengthening common bonds, Marga has contributed to unlocking untapped potential in numerous localities across the United States. Opportunities have also emerged for Marga to share its expertise and knowledge beyond the U.S., in countries such as Canada, Mexico, the U.K., and China.
In forging pathways toward a better future, Marga has worked with a number of foundations, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the Kellogg Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the California Endowment, and the San Francisco Foundation. A range of strategic partnerships exist with corporate stakeholders such as CitiGroup, government entities such as the city of Atlanta, and institutions of higher learning such as Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Uinversity, London Southbank University (U.K.), Simon Fraser University (Canada), and Iberoamericana (Mexico).
Since 2000, Dr. Maurrasse has been on the faculty at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He is currently Associate Research Scholar in the School and a Strategic Advisor to the University’s Earth Institute. At Columbia, he founded the Center for Innovation in Social Responsibility (CISR) which researched and promoted dialogue on the formation of partnerships involving corporations, higher education, philanthropy, and various other industries. The activities of CISR served to incubate the ideas that would eventually take form as Marga. Before moving to Columbia University, Dr. Maurrasse was a professor at Yale University from 1995-2000. From 1998-2000, he was a Senior Program Advisor at the Rockefeller Foundation, where he worked on community building and an initiative to further higher education/community partnerships.
A leading author, speaker, and researcher on the relationship between major institutions and their surrounding communities, Dr. Maurrasse has published important books in his fields of research all directed toward advancing new thinking about partnerships. In Listening to Harlem: Gentrification, Community and Business (2006), his latest, Dr. Maurrasse explores the opportunities and challenges of urban development as played out in Harlem between longtime community residents and newly established businesses. Growing out of Dr. Maurrasse’s earlier work, A Future for Everyone: Innovative Social Responsibility and Community Partnerships (2004) which examines corporate and institutional pathways for contributing to society, Listening to Harlem delves deeper and presents ideas and recommendations for unleashing untapped resources in communities such as Harlem. In 2001,
Dr. Maurrasse laid the groundwork for his ideas about the role of partnerships in changing society with Beyond the Campus: How Colleges and Universities form Partnerships with Their Communities. This work focuses on the ways that institutions of higher learning and their surrounding communities have worked together to pursue common goals.
Dr. Maurrasse has been a member of the board of several organizations. He currently serves on the Board of Bucknell University, Public Health Foundation Enterprises, and World Savvy, an organization started by two of his students focused on promoting global education in schools. He is also the current Chair of the Alliance for Community Enhancement (ACE) at Columbia University, a student-run nonprofit organization that partners with community based organizations in Harlem, funded by the Ford Foundation. Additionally, Dr. Maurrasse is a founding board member of the Association for Community and Higher Education Partnerships (ACHEP) and has served as Chair of the Board of Alliance for Nonprofit Management.
Dr. Maurrasse graduated from the University of Michigan. He received a Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University.
Email: dmaurrasse@margainc.com
Vice President for Client Services
 Cynthia
Jones, Ph.D. Candidate
A self-described competitive, entrepreneurial
spirit, Cynthia is currently pursuing a doctorate in
mental health at The Johns Hopkins School of Public
Health in Baltimore while working as a senior
consultant at Marga.
Role at Marga:
Manages client projects and
supports Marga's research.
Competencies:
Evaluation and research services including web and
literary research, creating and analyzing
quantitative and qualitative assessments, analyzing
large datasets, meeting facilitation, conducting
site visits, interviews, and focus groups, creating
databases, and writing reports.
Examples of Projects
:
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For First 5 LA, Cynthia served as the Marga lead
in researching practices in capacity building
and policy and advocacy for First 5 LA's new
line of funding for social agencies in Los
Angeles County supporting early childhood
physical activity, nutrition, oral health,
injury prevention, parental ability to support
their child's education.
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She has most recently brought her skills to
staffing the Race & Equity in Philanthropy Group
where she helped group members reflect on
methods of measuring impact in communities of
color. Cynthia also played a central role in
working with the Group to draft
Profiles in Foundation Giving to Communities of
Color, a paper that was released at the
2007 Council on Foundations Conference in
Seattle.
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In an assessement of the Duke Durham
Neighborhood Partnership for the Duke Endowment,
she conducted focus groups and interviews with
Durham residents and Duke University faculty and
staff for an assessment of the Duke Durham
Neighborhood Partnership.
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Among her work for the Annie E. Casey
Foundation's RESPECT, Cynthia led ongoing
evaluations of the group's public events,
organizational development, the Foundation's
work on equity in grantmaking, and the
development of a database featuring researchers
of color. She has also facilitated a
consultative session to inform the Foundation's
strategy regarding HIV/AIDS in Baltimore City.
Other Information:
A native of Indianapolis, Cynthia has an M.A. in
Quantitative Methods from Columbia University, and
an A.B. in Psychology from Princeton University.
Email:
cjones@margainc.com
Vice President for Research and Administration
 Martha
Tam
A multi-tasker and native Spanish speaker, Martha
brings to Marga a wealth of experience in the
private sector. Having worked in commercial banking
in Peru at Banco Wiese Ltdo (now Scotia Bank) and
employing microfinance strategies at Women’s World
Banking, she has drawn on her financial skills to
aid the development of small and medium-sized
enterprises.
Role at Marga:
Responsible for developing
new initiatives, attracting corporate and Latin
American clients, supporting Marga’s research
needs; and also facilitates and organizes learning
exchanges with international organizations,
universities, foundations, and corporations for
Marga.
Competencies:
Conducting in-depth research, writing assessment
reports, analyzing quantitative data, preparing
budget projections and financial scenarios,
organizing learning exchanges globally, prospecting
and establishing relationships with Fortune 500
companies such as Pfizer, Deutsche Bank, and Hewlett
Packard.
Examples of Projects
:
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Martha played a central role in developing the
curriculum for the course on Cross-sector
Partnerships at Columbia University. She
researched the topic areas, selected the
readings and researched and booked the guest
speakers. She also performed in a liaison role
between Columbia University’s ACE program and
the Harlem Children’s Zone, coordinating
community-building and mentoring activities
between Columbia and the Harlem organization.
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Martha’s experience in the corporate world
translates well into Marga’s efforts to forge
and strengthen public/private partnerships. As
part of the team working to help build new types
of partnerships through a focus on Anchor
Institutions in Baltimore, Atlanta, and Camden,
she is contributing to research that will assess
the potential of what these players could bring
to new partnerships.
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Martha has continued to provide facilitation and
logistical support to the North American
Tri-Lateral Partnership, an effort that brings
together Canada’s Simon Fraser University,
Mexico’s Iberoamericana and the University of
Pennsylvania in the United States to share
lessons on what works in university-community
collaborations.
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As part of her work to expand Marga’s influence,
Martha continually seeks opportunities to
organize learning exchanges between Marga and
institutions in other countries. Through her
efforts, Marga was able to share information
about leveraging private resources with an
audience of public officials at Beijing
University. Her work also resulted in a recent
series of learning exchanges held in Europe,
including talks with the World Economic Forum in
Geneva and discussions with Citigroup and Legacy
2020, a London-based group concerned about
harnessing longterm economic gains from the
Olympics of 2012. Additionally, Martha is
engaged in planning yet another learning
exchange for Marga, this time to South Africa
later in the summer.
Other Information:
Martha has a Master’s in Public Policy and
Administration from Columbia University and a
Bachelor of Science in Economics from Universidad
Nacional de Trujillo, Trujillo, Peru.
Email:
mtam@margainc.com
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