Our Staff
 Alex Desmond, Executive Director
Alex Desmond joined our team in 2014 and now serves as Executive Director. Alex guides national and local charities through the CFC application process and reports to WGA members on campaign pledges and distributions. He works closely with the board of directors to guide the organization’s strategy and manage operations. He also contributes to WGA's research on the CFC and the philanthropic sector and performs a variety of IT administrative functions.
Alex is a trained chef and restaurant manager with an interest in non-profits and food systems. Alex has a B.S. in Sustainable Food and Farming from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst. When he is not at work, you can find him in the garden, in the woods, or curled up with a good book.  Nancy Rexford, Staff Accountant
Nanxy Rexford re-joined the team in 2020 as our Staff Accountant. She has been involved with the Workplace Giving Alliance in various capacities since 2004. She manages the administration of our financial and personnel systems and brings more than thirty years of non-profit experience to the team.
Nancy holds degrees from Vassar College and the University of Iowa, where she studied music, English literature, and creative writing. A well-known costume historian, Nancy wrote and illustrated Women's Shoes in America, 1795-1920 (Kent State University Press), which won the Costume Society of America's award as best costume book of the year 2000. Nancy serves on the board of The New Opera and Musical Theater Initiative, a group of musical theater writers that meet monthly to workshop high-quality new works for musical theater.  Charlie Drapala, Local Admissions & Recruitment Coordinator
Charlie Drapala has been a part of our team since 2008. Charlie coordinates pledge processing, vendor relationships, and CFC event notifications. During the admissions season, he communicates with local charities to help guide them through the CFC application process.
Before entering the non-profit field, Charlie excelled in various management and sales endeavors. He was a manager in the cosmetology field for over 20 years before he transitioned to sales and marketing as a manager for Cambridge Sound Works, a high-end audio/video equipment company. Charlie serves on the board of a nonprofit called Hope and Friendship Metastatic Breast Cancer Foundation for Men and Women.  Lisa Rosenthal, Associate Director
Lisa Rosenthal joined the HCROA team in 2011 and now serves as Associate Director. Lisa helps to coordinate the review of national and local CFC applications and advises member charities on how they may comply with campaign requirements. She also contributes to research on the CFC and other policy issues in the philanthropic sector.
Lisa graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 2011 with a Master of Theological Studies, focusing on religion, ethics and politics. She graduated from College of the Atlantic in 2009 with a B.A. in Human Ecology. When she isn’t immersed in the CFC, Lisa attends law school at the University of Maine School of Law. She enjoys spending time in the outdoors, exploring New England towns, and sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.  Elaine Gerdine, Director of Research
and Admissions Specialist
Elaine Gerdine joined the Workplace Giving Alliance in January 2013 to work on the Million Donors Choose project and other research initiatives. She also assists charities preparing applications to the CFC. Before that, she spent 15 years as a writer and web content strategist for CSC, a leading IT company, supervising content for a 700-page website and managing a blog that presented the ideas of some of the company’s most forward-looking technology thinkers. She also planned and implemented marketing and other communications campaigns and wrote extensively on a variety of business and technology topics.
A classically-trained pianist, Elaine has penned several librettos, including those for a set of short operas based on folk tales, which have received numerous productions. She served for several years as a consultant for the New York State Council on the Arts and the Brooklyn Arts Council, where she participated in the evaluation of grant applicants. |