Home - SIM Foundation

Purpose
Increasing philanthropy on a national level with an emphasis on STEM education and to enable local SIM chapters in their efforts to give back to the organizations that benefit their local causes.

How can you help? Make a donation today, shop our SIM Swag Store, or designate the SIM Foundation as your Amazon Smile charity of choice. All proceeds benefit the SIM Foundation:

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About US

The SIM Foundation has been set up as a Philanthropic organization that currently has two major objectives; Giving back to organizations with a national presence and enabling chapters to utilize the benefits of a 501(c)(3) organization.

Giving Back to Organizations

The Foundation sponsors many events that help increase awareness and raise funds to help select organizations that benefit groups on a national level. These funds are raised through national events that will not compete with any local efforts your chapters may have to raise money for local philanthropy. There will be a host of events and programs designed to generate revenue for these efforts including options that may help you generate some funds for your local charities.

FIRST® and SIM Foundation have executed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on support for FIRST’s programs across the country. SIM Foundation and FIRST share a common goal of promoting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education to students, including girls and underrepresented groups, aged 4-18 years. It is our intent to engage SIM members across the nation as Mentors, Coaches, Volunteers, Fundraisers or other roles in FIRST programs for the combined benefit of both organizations.

STEM Outreach

National Alliance with FIRST®

How the Foundation Can Help My Chapter Realize its Philanthropic Goals

The SIM Foundation has a structure in place that will allow your chapter to collect tax deductible 501(c)(3) donations and in turn distribute them to eligible recipients. This service is provided at no cost to your chapter and 100% of the funds collected may be distributed to your local eligible recipients. This will allow your chapter to collect and distribute funds as a 501(c)(3) without the overhead of creating a separate non-profit entity. For more information on this please see our FAQ to learn about the framework.

FAQ

Past Event Gallery

Our purpose is to increase philanthropy on a national level with an emphasis on STEM education and to enable local chapters in their efforts to give back to the organizations that benefit their local causes. Click the arrows on the image to the right to see photos from our past events.

2020 SIM national Giveback week

Members of the SIM Foundation Board

Eric Gorham

Chair

Mr. Gorham has served as CIO for REJIS since 1998. He joined REJIS in June of 1983 and has been a member of the REJIS team for more than 35 years. Mr. Gorham is responsible for the development, implementation and ongoing support of IT systems and solutions in critical government areas, such as law enforcement, courts, corrections, disaster recovery, Data Center operations, network services, security, help desk and citizen services. He participates on several committees that oversee the operations of REJIS, which help guide the future direction of the organization. Mr. Gorham is a founding member of the St. Louis Chapter of the Society for Information Management (SIM) and served as the Chapter’s President in 2007. He currently serves as Chair for the SIM National Foundation as a member of the SIM St. Louis - President’s Advisory Council, and was the SIM National Chair from 2014 - 2015. Mr. Gorham is a graduate of the SIM Midwest Regional Leadership Forum and in 2006 was selected as one of Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders. Mr. Gorham supports local community organizations as a member of BackStoppers, The MASTERS, and as a Board Member for the St. Louis Community College Foundation. Education: • Executive MBA, Beta Gamma Sigma (Honor Society for National Schools of Business) - Washington University, St. Louis Missouri, 2013 • CIO Pocket MBA, Boston University School of Management, Boston Massachusetts, 2009 • Bachelor of Science, Organizational Administration - Cum Laude - St. Louis University • Associate in Applied Science Data Processing - St. Louis Community College at Meramec • Certificate for Computer Programming and Operations Control Data Institute

Nanci Schmizzi

Vice Chair

Nanci Schimizzi is a Senior Technology Executive with over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. As founder and principal at Fair Oaks Strategies, Nanci has served as a Management Consultant at large financial services firms, non-profits and professional associations. Nanci has extensive experience in IT strategy, business continuity and resiliency planning, business relationship, program management, and software development. She is actively engaged in championing programs supporting STEM Initiatives.

Gonz Roman

Secretary

Gonz Roman is an IT Business Manager at the St. Louis County Government. With over 25 years in IT across various market verticals, he has extensive experience in business process improvement, applications development, infrastructure management, business continuity, and information security. Gonz is a graduate of the SIM Midwest Regional Leadership Forum. He currently serves as Secretary for the SIM National Foundation and as the Community Outreach Chair for the SIM St. Louis chapter. He is actively engaged in promoting STEM initiatives in the community.

Sandi Phillips

Treasurer

Sandi has over 20 years of experience in Information Technology. She was a Director of Finance Technology for a Fortune 100 company where she was responsible for developing methodologies, frameworks and automation that reduced time to market, and improved the accuracy and real-time monitoring of customer and billing data, improving the company’s ability to react competitively. She has extensive experience in process improvement and automation, data science and application development, with a broad background in a wide range of technologies and business domains.

Janis O’Bryan

Directors at Large

Janis O’Bryan joined Hudson Advisors in February 1997 as IT Director and was then promoted to global SVP/CIO of Information Technology in 2000. She had global responsibility for all technology for Hudson Advisors and Lone Star Funds. In addition to the responsibility of managing business technology for this dynamic private equity and asset management company, Janis and her global team provided technology and information security consultant services to mitigate risk in the companies mergers and acquisitions activities as well as ongoing operational guidance.

Leo Pellerin

Directors at Large

Mr. Leo Pellerin has served as the CIO for the United Way of Connecticut since 2011. He is responsible for the strategic planning, technology management and disaster planning for several statewide call centers including Connecticut’s 211 statewide service. He is also responsible for the continual development of several highly acclaimed service-based websites including 211ct.org and 211childcare.org. Additionally, Leo currently serves on the SIM national board as Vice Chair.

Cindy McKenzie

Directors at Large

Cindy McKenzie is Chief Information Officer for Deluxe Entertainment Services Group where she is responsible for IT strategy and planning, development, implementation and maintenance of technology- related functions and services for Deluxe Entertainment Services globally. Under her tenure, previously siloed IT and Security functions were centralized globally to better support Deluxe’s digital transformation, to improve service delivery and to support global workshare. She has over 20 years’ experience in IT leadership roles across multiple industries including Media and Entertainment, Engineering and Construction and Financial Services.

Mark Taylor

SIM Chief Executive

Mark Taylor is the Chief Executive Officer of the Society for Information Management. As the chief visionary of SIM, Mark serves a team of 5000+ IT Leaders from Large Cap and Mid-Market companies and Non-Profits organizations from across the country. Mark is an experienced business executive, leader & strategist. Expert in business operations, sales & marketing, technology, & finance. Mark’s unique ability to build bridges between executives, chapters, members, & partners - builds a platform of trust that is leading SIM forward as a key influencer in the development of the next generation of IT leaders.

Jeff Skulsky

Chair Emeritus

High performance Senior IT Executive with over 30 years of success, working with national and multinational organizations in industries such as Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, and Management Consulting.