Graham’s 2025 Annual Meeting

On May 28, we hosted Graham’s 219th Annual Meeting! Through this exciting tradition, we invite members of our wider community to a meeting with our Board of Directors to hear an update on the organization and a presentation on an important topic. This year we were pleased to unveil our newest innovative pilot concept: Graham WORKS!

Graham WORKS (Workforce Opportunities, Readiness, Knowledge, & Skills) is a critical part of our Vision 2029 strategic plan to help young adults reach a living wage career path by age 26. Graham WORKS will collaborate with our signature Graham SLAM youth coaching initiative as well as with employers and workforce partners to provide young adults with hands-on workforce experience, professional mentoring, and connections to quality internships and jobs. The Graham WORKS initiative will build these connections by establishing partnerships with employers. As we build this pilot, SLAM will also be enhancing Graham’s career supports and tapping into New York City’s existing array of workforce training and readiness programs.  

Thank you to Katie Napolitano, co-founder of the Center for Fair Futures and consultant at shared horizon and Sharmeela Mediratta, Graham’s Chief Wellness & Environmental Design Officer for developing and sharing this insightful presentation. We are especially grateful to Bonnie Kornberg, Graham’s Chief Strategy Officer, for her leadership in convening the development process for Graham WORKS. There were also many young adults and staff who contributed to the research and planning of this ambitious new pilot—thank you, all! We were happy to have members of this planning group in the room as Graham WORKS Ambassadors.

In addition to this centerpiece presentation, we had standard elements of our Annual Meeting: my President & CEO’s report, the Treasurer’s report, and updates from a subcommittee of the Board as well as staff committees on our work related to upholding our Pillars. These include our commitment to upholding respect for all people, combatting racism and creating a safe and inclusive environment for people who identify as LGBTQAI+.

We had the immense honor of celebrating Board members Georgia Wall, Joan Haffenreffer, Mark Rufeh, and Salim Ramji on their milestone legacy years of service with Graham. We also celebrated the dedicated passion of Ken Bryant, who is stepping down from his position as Co-Chair of the Board and will hold the title of Chair Emeritus. Thank you, Ken, for your inspiring leadership— Graham’s children and families will experience the impact of your lasting contributions for years to come.

Board Member and Senior Vice Chair, Garrard Beeney, was elected as our new Board Co-Chair, joining fellow Co-Chair Rich Rothman. We are confident their partnership will provide strong leadership for Graham’s Board of Directors as we work toward achieving Vision 2029.

I am grateful to have the full support of our Board of Directors, staff, funders, and community members as we collaborate with our children, young adults and families to build the future of Graham. Our commitment to radical listening (taking in and understanding what our families need and then responding to and doing something about it) will guide us as we create new ways of providing helpful help™.  

As we build upon the tradition of Graham’s Annual Meeting each Spring, we will offer compelling topics and presentations to enlighten and educate our members, friends, and allies. View photos that capture the warm spirit of this Graham tradition below!