Welcome to our new board members!

Dan Cruce currently works for a national nonpartisan, nonprofit, the Hope Street Group. He leads the organization’s work engaging teachers and decision makers across the country to improve education policy and practice for teachers and students. Cruce was previously deputy secretary/chief of staff at the Delaware Department of Education. Immediately prior, Cruce was assistant superintendent/chief of staff for the Christina School District. He was the first law clerk to the Honorable Kent A. Jordan, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Cruce was associate general counsel for Corporation Service Company. In law school, he also worked for Vice President Joe Biden’s Wilmington senate office. Cruce is a member of the boards of United Way of Delaware and Delaware Arts Consortium, president of the boards of the Delaware Theatre Company and the Delaware Arts Alliance, and chair emeritus of the Delaware Humane Association.

Claire DeMatteis, executive vice president and chief counsel of Global Kompass Strategies, previously served as senior vice president and general counsel at Affinity Health Plan, and as executive vice president, general counsel, corporate secretary and chief privacy officer of Catalina Marketing and Catalina Health. DeMatteis also was a partner at the law firm Stradley Ronon Stevens and Young and senior counsel to then-U.S. Senator Joe Biden.

Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, vice chancellor of the Court of Chancery, previously worked in the Wilmington office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She previously practiced at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. Montgomery-Reeves also served as a law clerk for Chancellor William B. Chandler III of the Delaware Court of Chancery. She also served as a member of the Court of Chancery rules committee and a subcommittee member to the Delaware Access to Justice Commission.

Dr. Vita Pickrum, vice president of the Division of Institutional Advancement at Delaware State University, has been a DSU administrator since 2008. Pickrum is also the president of the DSU Foundation.  As the campaign manager, she surpassed DSU’s five-year, $20 million fundraising campaign that strengthened DSU’s endowment and scholarship pool. Pickrum was recently named to the board of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s Commission on Philanthropy, and to the CASE committee on institutionally related foundations.

Tom Wren, investments executive, previously served as treasurer for MBNA America Bank. He also served as a bank regulator with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and chief investment and funding officer with Shawmut Bank. He currently serves as a board member of Philadelphia based RAIT Financial Trust and ACM Financial Trust. Wren has had a long relationship with the Delaware Community Foundation, serving as board chair 2010-2012 and on the executive and investments committees. He also has served in board and committee positions with Delaware Hospice and Christiana Care Health System.