Meet The 3 New Brooklyn Community Foundation Board Members

CROWN HEIGHTS, NY — Crown Heights-based Brooklyn Community Foundation announced three new heavy hitting board members Friday, including Center for Brooklyn History and Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation alums.

Board members make key decisions at the organization on key programming and grant allocations within Brooklyn. The foundation has awarded over $90 million to Brooklyn nonprofits since its 2009 founding, according to a foundation representative.

The three new members joined a 22-person board co-chaired by Nicole Gueron, former Deputy Chief Trial Counsel to Andrew Cuomo, and Harsha Marti, an attorney and executive manager at Warburg Pincus.

"They have been visionaries in current and past positions, and we are confident that they will uphold the Foundation’s commitment to social justice in Brooklyn and beyond,” Marti and Gueron said in a statement.

Meet the three new members:

• Shaheen Rushd has retired from her 30-year career in securities litigation to become involved in local social justice and community causes. A Brooklyn resident since 1981, Rushd has worked with a non-profit to support South Asian domestic violence survivors, Brooklyn Historical Society and local Human Rights Watch branch. Rushd has served on the center's Spark Prize committee.
• Timothy Simons is particularly well-versed in government relations and has taken on local leadership roles with the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and Weeksville Heritage Center. He lives in Washington, DC but considers Brooklyn his "hometown." Simons co-founded Forethought Advisors.
• Vishal Sheth, currently a partner at Apollo, lives in Cobble Hill with his family. He attended New York University's Stern School of Business and Law School, where he worked on the Review of Law and Social Change.