Allan C. Golston
President, U.S. Program

U.S. Program President Allan C. Golston oversees the foundation’s Education, U.S. Libraries, and Pacific Northwest grant initiatives, as well as U.S. Program Advocacy and Special Initiatives. Golston, who joined the foundation in 1999, most recently served as our chief financial and administrative officer.

Golston’s professional background is in finance and healthcare. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from Seattle University and a bachelor’s of science in accounting from the University of Colorado. He is an active community volunteer and serves on the boards of a number of regional and national organizations.

David Bley
Director of the Pacific Northwest Initiative

As director of the foundation's Pacific Northwest initiative, David Bley oversees local grantmaking and the development and implementation of strategies to help vulnerable children and families in the Pacific Northwest.

Bley most recently served as vice president of strategic initiatives at the national nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners, which focuses on affordable housing and poverty. He has an extensive background in housing and economic development and was formerly chief operating officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle. Bley served as director of the Seattle Fannie Mae Partnership Office and as a senior advisor to former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, focusing on housing, human services, and economic opportunity. Prior to that, he worked for the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Bley holds a bachelor's degree in urban planning from the University of Washington and a master's degree in public administration from Seattle University. He currently serves as chair of the Seattle Housing Authority's board of commissioners.

Diane de Ryss
Director of Operations, United States Program

As director of operations, Diane de Ryss ensures that initiatives within the foundation's United States Program can achieve their strategic goals. De Ryss collaborates with leadership in each U.S. Program initiative and works with the foundation's finance, impact assessment, financial planning, information technology, and human resources groups. She also oversees grants and contracts management teams.

Previously, De Ryss held a similar position in our Education grant making area. Before joining the foundation in 2004, she was a founder and vice president of School Operations for Apex Learning, Inc., an education company that develops and delivers online high school courses and curriculum. She was also director of Continuing Legal Education for the Washington State Bar Association. De Ryss practiced law as a civil rights attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Southern California and Bachelor of Arts degrees in French and Sociology from the University of Washington.

Jill Nishi
Program Manager, U.S. Libraries Initiative

Jill Nishi currently directs the foundation’s U.S. Libraries initiative to bring computer and Internet access to disadvantaged communities through the nation’s public libraries.

Prior to joining the foundation, Nishi served in several leadership positions in the public and private sector. Most recently, she was director of the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development, where she developed and implemented community, economic, and workforce development strategies to improve opportunities for all city residents. Nishi also served as deputy director of the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development and as a senior management consultant in the public sector practice of Deloitte & Touche.

Nishi holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Puget Sound and a master's degree in Public Affairs from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. An active member of the Seattle community, she co-founded the Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Foundation. She currently serves on the boards of Seafair and the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas.

Hilary Pennington
Director, Special Initiatives

As Director of Special Initiatives, Hilary Pennington will lead the new effort focused on one-time opportunities for the foundation to respond to unique challenges and unanticipated events in the United States.

Pennington most recently served as a Senior Fellow at the progressive think tank the Center for American Progress and vice-chair of Jobs for the Future (JFF), a research and policy development organization she co-founded. In her twenty-two years as President and CEO of JFF, Pennington helped the organization become one of the most influential in the country on issues of education, youth transitions, workforce development, and future work requirements. Her experience partnering with states, non-profits, national foundations, and corporations will prove invaluable to the foundation’s work in the United States addressing poverty and access to opportunity.

Pennington is a graduate of the Yale School of Management and Yale College. She holds a graduate degree in Social Anthropology from Oxford University and was a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2000. 

Vicki L. Phillips
Director, Education

Vicki Phillips serves as director of  Education for the foundation. Phillips oversees work to improve early learning in Washington state; to ensure U.S. high school students graduate ready for success in college, career, and life; and to improve access to college.

Phillips has committed her career to increasing educational opportunities for young people. Prior to joining the foundation, she was superintendent of Portland Public Schools in Portland, Ore. Earlier, Phillips was secretary of education and chief state school officer for the state of Pennsylvania and also served as superintendent of the School District of Lancaster, Pa. She has worked with the U.S. Office of Education in Washington, D.C., and has been a middle and high school teacher.

Phillips holds a bachelor's degree in elementary education and a master's degree in school psychology from Western Kentucky University. She also holds a doctorate in education from the University of Lincoln in England.

Steven G. Seleznow, Ed. D.
Program Director, Education

Steven G. Seleznow, program director for the foundation's Education initiative, leads grant making for state and district partnerships throughout the United States. Prior to joining the foundation, Seleznow served as partner and chief investment officer at Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP) in Washington, D.C., where he developed VPP's philanthropic investment strategies, cultivated and managed the selection of new investments in nonprofit organizations, and leveraged resources and community assets to create investment partnerships.

With more than 30 years of leadership and management experience in public education, Seleznow led the Montgomery County, Md., Public Schools as deputy superintendent for education and the District of Columbia Public Schools as chief of staff and as interim superintendent. Prior to these appointments, he served in a wide range of district administrative and leadership posts. Earlier in his career, Seleznow held positions as an elementary and secondary school principal and teacher.

Seleznow earned a doctorate and a master's degree in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard University and a master's degree from the University of Maryland. He is a graduate of Boston University.

Greg Shaw
Director of Advocacy and Policy,
U.S. Program

Greg Shaw is director of advocacy and policy for the foundation's U.S. Program. He oversees our U.S. Program communications, policy, and finance efforts for our work in education, public libraries, the Pacific Northwest initiative, and U.S. special initiatives. In this capacity, Greg manages a policy and advocacy grantmaking portfolio and oversees relations with key partners in the public, private, and civic sectors. Greg previously led the foundation's Pacific Northwest program as well as early learning and college readiness work in Washington state.

Before joining the foundation, Greg was a partner in the marketing communications firm of Shepardson Stern and Kaminsky (SS+K). He also spent six years at Microsoft, where he helped to create the company's giving program for public libraries. Prior to this, Greg was an executive with Ketchum Communications in Washington, D.C. He has served in the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Interior Department and within the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. He began his career as a writer and editor of the Cherokee Advocate, the newspaper for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

He has a B.A. in journalism from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. He and his wife have two young children.

Jim Shelton
Director, Education

Jim Shelton is a program director in the Education initiative at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He manages new school creation and replications, East Coast grants and College Access. 

Prior to joining the foundation, Shelton was a partner and the east coast lead for the New Schools Venture Fund. Before joining NewSchools, he co-founded LearnNow a school management company that later merged with Edison Schools. Shelton also spent over four years as a senior management consultant with McKinsey & Company. 

He holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Atlanta's Morehouse College, as well as master's degrees in Business Administration and Education from Stanford University.