Join us for a fireside chat with Joyce Vyriotes, Executive Director of Cummings Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in New England.
Joyce and Bill Cummings (A58, H06, J97P, M97P) established Cummings Foundation, Inc. in 1986. Woburn-based Cummings Foundation has awarded $ 600 million in grants to greater Boston nonprofits alone. Its giving is concentrated in Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties plus several abutting communities in Norfolk county, and it benefits a broad range of causes.
The Cummings also have a special interest in Rwanda, where the Foundation collaborates with Partners In Health and a limited number of other organizations to aid in that East African country’s post-genocide recovery and rebuilding.
Joyce and Bill quietly contributed to the local community for many years. Then, in May 2011, they joined The Giving Pledge, an organization founded by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet through which some of the world’s wealthiest individuals and couples have publicly pledged to donate at least half of their assets for philanthropic purposes. Bill and Joyce had already donated 90 percent of their wealth.
This is an Inside the Classroom speaker event hosted by Professor Usha Pasi who teaches ENT142 Nonprofits, Philanthropy and Impact at Tufts University.
About Joyce Vyriotes
Vyriotes came to the Cummings organization as marketing manager in 2010 and, over the years, established a communications department that supports both Cummings Properties and Cummings Foundation. During much of this time, she also served as deputy director of the Foundation, and was one of the chief architects of its major annual grant-making initiative and volunteer program.
In 2021, Vyriotes became the third executive director in the Foundation’s history. She is, however, still employed by Cummings Properties and retains her responsibilities as director of communications and marketing for the commercial real estate firm.
Vyriotes began her business career doing sales and marketing for Boston Duck Tours, before moving to Arizona, where she spent a decade in fundraising and patient services for nonprofit organizations. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, she also earned a master’s in Integrated Marketing Communications from West Virginia University. Vyriotes was raised in Melrose and currently resides in Reading with her husband, Paul.
About Usha Pasi
Usha Pasi has spent her career serving as an advocate for donors and institutions pursuing their philanthropic and programmatic aims, and she has advised boards and organizations about best practices in governance. Her experience includes increasingly responsible roles at Columbia University, Yale University, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Facing History and Ourselves, the Cambridge Community Foundation, and consulting roles with local and international organizations including Stanford University. Her consulting practice includes work as an executive coach, development and governance guidance, scaling of entrepreneurial organizations, and counseling on building inclusive organizations.
She serves on the boards of the Boston Book Festival, Be Well Be Here, the Arlington Libraries Foundation, and she is also a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Education Alumni Council. Usha is committed to expanding professional development opportunities for her colleagues in the field, and as a board member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals served as a mentor in AFP’s Diversity and Inclusion Fellowship program. She also served as President of Women in Development of Greater Boston.
Usha holds an Ed.M. degree from Harvard University and her undergraduate degree from SUNY-Binghamton. She was awarded a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship in Improved Fundraising Capabilities. In addition, she holds an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Harvard Kennedy School and a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University.
Zoom Link: https://tufts.zoom.us/j/93983991106?pwd=ELWdciLBwkcU1IS1g6sbPTvIScaLcH.1