Anne Delaney is a visual artist and a leader in feminist philanthropy. As co-founder of Lambent Foundation, she is committed to honoring the role of artists in public life and how cultural expression catalyzes social movements for progressive change. Anne’s philanthropic vision began with the Starry Night Fund, and she deepened her commitment to art, culture, and justice by co-creating Lambent Foundation in 2008.

Anne is a proud member of New York’s Bowery Gallery collective. She uses drawing and painting to make sense of socio-political issues in the current climate. Many national organizations have recognized Anne’s vision for philanthropy and support of women’s empowerment, including the Ms. Foundation, the New York Women’s Foundation, the Korean American Family Service Center, and the Women’s Funding Network. Anne has served as a board member for Peace is Loud, the Ms. Foundation, and an Advisory Council member of Common Justice.

A valued voice in progressive philanthropy, Michelle Coffey sustains the strategy and vision for Lambent Foundation and its network of grantee partners. Michelle’s adaptive orientation and abolitionist lens drive her to work for just and equitable futures where more people hold collective power. 

Able to navigate disequilibrium with humor and grace, Michelle’s tenacity results from collaborative work at the Walker Art Center and The National Association of Artists Organizations during the late 1990s American culture wars. These institutions and networks fueled Michelle’s insistence on values-aligned work, centering artists and their practice, and the importance of disparate voices and ideas. 

Michelle has long been awake to the vital role of arts and culture in progressive movements. Before Lambent, she served as Director of Starry Night Fund and Senior Philanthropic Advisor at Tides Foundation, working with a wide-range of philanthropic strategies from participatory review processes and individual donors to funding collaboratives. Over the years, Michelle’s purview has spanned human rights, criminal justice reform, arts and culture, and HIV/AIDS. This diversity of experience continues to shape and inform Lambent’s philanthropic approach. Michelle serves on several boards, including the Brownsville Multi-Service Family Health Care Center in East New York and Grantmakers in the Arts.

Franklin has always been fascinated with emergent systems and how things work. An internationally recognized artist and designer, Franklin has channeled this curiosity into a wide-ranging career at the intersection of creativity, technology, and social innovation.

Franklin’s penchant for analysis has fueled professional experiences that include stewarding a learning network at Mozilla, developing curricula and digital products at Girls Who Code, opening a public school inspired by game design at Institute of Play, and serving as a tenured professor in electronic arts at Bard College. 

At Lambent, Franklin functions as a strategic adviser, applying a designer’s eye across Lambent’s grantmaking, network engagement, and organizational culture. Franklin charts institutional direction through research and assessment, tuning processes and practices to be more inclusive, transparent, and values-aligned. Franklin is the former Vice President for Education, Strategy & Innovation at Girls Who Code and is board president of Out in Tech, a 30,000-strong volunteer community uniting LGBTQIA techies.

Rasu Jilani is a social sculptor and an expert at convening people, designing cultural experiences, and building synergy around shared values and practices. He co-founded the grassroots lifestyle brand and art collective, Coup d’Etat BROOKLYN.

In his role as Cultural Network Curator, Rasu translates Lambent’s core values and approach to network theory into organizational practice while cultivating the abundant resources and assets of Lambent’s grantee-partners. Rasu develops programs and designs opportunities to promote shared learning and curates experiences that strengthen collaboration and the exchange of ideas.

Before Lambent, Rasu was Director of Recruiting and Community Engagement at the New Museum’s cultural incubator, NEW INC. There he developed and supervised mentorship and alumni initiatives, designed community culture, and formed a pool of applicants that drew equally from art, tech, and entrepreneurial sectors.

Will Coley is intrigued by how our brains are hardwired to respond to storytelling and narrative. He learned of this potential firsthand as an advocate and community organizer working with refugees and asylum seekers in the U.S., U.K., and Zimbabwe. Will has created digital campaigns with nonprofit organizations and witnessed the impact that personal stories have on shifting larger narratives about immigrant and refugee rights. He produced a podcast series, Indefensible, in collaboration with people facing deportation. Will’s provocative audio stories have aired on NPR News, 99% Invisible, and BBC World Service, among others.

Will brings a human rights lens to Lambent’s work. As Lead Storyteller, Will synthesizes and co-creates Lambent’s many narratives, actively working to gather, translate, and disseminate information for and about Lambent and its grantee-partner network.