Shirin E. Harrell, Esq. is the President and Founder of Philoptima,llc. She earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University and is a practicing attorney before all Louisiana state courts and all federal courts. Shirin holds an MBA degree from Tulane University and is a Registered Nurse having earned her undergraduate nursing degree from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts.

She has extensive business management and marketing experience as a senior officer of a large, life & health insurance company with interstate and international responsibilities for health products. She is also an experienced entrepreneur with start-up skills, and she has held other senior corporate leadership roles in marketing, strategic planning, public relations, and new product development.  Shirin is a member of the Philoptima Faculty.

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Dr. Byron Harrell is author of “Supercharged Giving: The Professionals Guide to Strategic Philanthropy” scheduled for distribution in late 2008. He is the President/CEO of a large private foundation with assets approaching $300 million.  Byron is a frequent lecturer and author on strategic philanthropy based on “concept mapping” which graphically links a funder\'s mission to strategies, objectives, and  individual grants through measurable impact models.

Harrell is passionate about boosting grant making outcomes through carefully applied and well researched community solutions. He holds a Doctor of Science degree from Tulane University with a primary interest in organizational theory as applied to the performance of private foundations. His current research focuses on the design of successful foundations and in validating measurement methodologies. He has more than twenty-five years of experience in health services research, health systems management, health maintenance organizations and related fields including service as the CEO of a system of acute care hospitals.  Byron is a member of the Philoptima Faculty.

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Since retiring from his 11-year presidency of the Southeastern Council of Foundations in 2008, Martin Lehfeldt has devoted his time to writing, speaking to gatherings of not-for-profit organizations and foundations, consulting, and volunteer service.

A graduate of Haverford College and Union Theological Seminary in New York., Mr. Lehfeldt’s career has also included employment as a newspaper reporter, a foundation program office, a college development officer, and president of his own consulting firm.

An active volunteer, he has been a member and board chair of the Academy Theatre, the Center for Positive Aging, Literacy Action, Inc. and board chair of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers. He is a current board member of the Georgia Humanities Council, a trustee of Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary and the Interdenominational Theological Center, a member of the Advisory Board of the Open Door Community, and an Elder of Central Presbyterian Church. During 2006-2007 he chaired the National Advisory Committee of the Hurricane Fund for the Elderly.

He is the co-author of The Sacred Call: A Tribute to Donald L. Hollowell – Civil Rights Champion; the editor of and contributor to On Our Way Rejoicing (a collection of essays to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Central Presbyterian Church); and the author of two plays. He also contributed a chapter and several other portions to An Agile Servant, an overview of community foundations in the United States, and has written many articles and speeches dealing with issues related to the not-for-profit world. On the occasion of his retirement from SECF, the association published Thinking about Things, a compilation of his monthly newsletter columns. His Notes from a Non-Profitable Life: Reflections on a Journey across America’s Charitable Sector was published in November, 2008.