Holly Delany Cole is Director of the Flexible Leadership Awards Program, an organizational and leadership development initiative located within the Haas Jr. Fund and serving the Fund’s grantees. Until June 2014, she was co-director of Community Resource Exchange (CRE), having been part of CRE’s senior team for 18 years. During her time there, Holly was a staff consultant, director of consulting and deputy director for programs.
Immediately before CRE, she was a freelance consultant for human services and grant-making organizations in Chicago and NYC and helped to formalize the National Funding Collaborative for Violence Prevention. Her work included program evaluation, program development, coalition-building and proposal writing. Ms. Delany Cole served as a program officer at the New York Community Trust from 1983 through 1989, managing grant programs in youth services, human justice, employment and aging.
Holly currently serves on the board of The New York Foundation, a steadfast supporter of community organizing and advocacy, and was a long-time Board member of PowerMyLearning, a national organization that strengthens learning relationships among students, teachers and families. Now a relatively new resident of Oakland, California, Ms. Delany Cole is active member with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.
Ms. Delany Cole has a bachelor’s degree from Adelphi University and a master’s degree from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. She is the co-author of Working with Teen Parents – a Survey of Promising Approaches with Phyllis Smith Nickel (1985).