Bios of Key Staff

Angela R. Woods

Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Executive Officer
United Way of the National Capital Area

Brief biography:
Angela Woods joined the United Way of the National Capital Area in October, 2007 as its Chief Operating Officer. Prior to that, she served United Way of Central Carolinas since 1997 and has worked in a variety of capacities. Since 2004, she led the Community Building division as well as handled legal and risk management issues. Before obtaining her current position, Woods oversaw a number of divisions, including Regional Operations, Human Resources, Marketing and Finance. A native of Detroit, Woods grew up in Albany, Ga., and earned her bachelors degree in psychology from Spelman College in Atlanta. Woods also earned a law degree from the University of Georgia and earned a Masters of Business Administration in finance from Clark Atlanta University. She is an active member of the State Bar of Georgia.

Angela was the treasurer of the Charlotte Merchants Foundation, and she was also the trustee and an investment committee member of the Charlotte Firefighter’s Retirement Board. She is an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the Links, Inc. She is married to Daemon S. Woods.

Call Angela:

For questions related to risk management or legal issues
Organizational policies and procedures
For issues related to Community Impact, Resource Development or Finance
For issues related to Information Technology or Human Resources

For Ethics, Governance and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance

Steven L. Sanderson

Chief Development Officer,
United Way of the National Capital Area

Steve has worked with the United Way system for 22 years, including local United Ways in California, Michigan, Arizona, Kansas, and Pennsylvania. Prior to joining United Way of the National Capital Area in June 2007, he spent his last 9 years with United Way of America, serving as Vice President, Investor Relations. His skills and competencies include consultation, training, group facilitation, product development, resource development, campaign analysis, publications, and management. His key responsibilities included resource development training and technical assistance and leadership consultation to major market United Way’s in their Resource Development efforts.

Instrumental in the production of “The Essential Attributes of a Community Impact United Way”, the pre-cursor to United Way’s “Standards of Excellence”; Steve was also a founding member of the “Impact Transformation Partnership.” ITP is an intensive 14 month consultative partnership with UWA and a local United Way designed to transform the individual United Way by facilitating their understanding and implementation of the essential attributes required to create community impact.

Steve also led UWA’s then “Knowledge Transfer Team” in its creation of the first ever Webinar, now a common training experience for the United Way system. He also provided oversight to all of our system Resource Development training and direct support services to major market vice presidents of resource development.

Most recently Steve led the charge in bringing Consultative Selling to the United Way system. In its first year in 2006 over 500 field professionals have taken advantage of this learning opportunity that builds “Win-Win” partnerships between donors and United Ways securing valuable resources for United Way initiatives.

Steve was awarded the professional designation of Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) by meeting a series of competency and educational standards set by the CFRE International Board. These include professional achievements, tenure in the profession, commitment to not-for-profit service, and passing a written examination demonstrating competence in management, donor relations, volunteerism, stewardship, solicitation, and prospect identification.

He and his wife and six children ages 15 years to 15 months reside in Mount Vernon.

Holly Clark Blanchard, CPA, MBA

Chief Financial Officer,
United Way of the National Capital Area

Holly Clark Blanchard joined UWNCA in July 2006 as the Chief Financial Officer. She brings more than 15 years of experience as a senior financial and operational manager, specializing in leading major international and Fortune 500 corporations to reach and exceed their annual targets. Her financial expertise includes financial reporting, auditing, internal controls, budgeting, forecasting and financial modeling.

Since joining UWNCA, she has restructured United Way’s finance department. Her leadership and Big Four background from Ernst & Young, LLP led the team to complete the fastest UWNCA audit in seven years for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007. Thanks to her detailed financial training, process re-engineering skills and high professional standards, UWNCA continues to strengthen both financially and as a whole organization.

Prior to joining UWNCA, Ms. Blanchard worked as the interim Chief Financial Officer for Training Resources Group. Previously, Ms. Blanchard was a Group Chief Operating Officer with American Management Systems for a $500 million group.

Ms. Blanchard earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from LeMoyne College and her Masters of Business Administration in Finance, Competitive & Organizational Strategy, and Entrepreneurship from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester. She is also a Certified Public Accountant and has served on the board of directors of the Volunteers of America of Western New York as the Strategic Chair.

Ms. Blanchard has been nominated for numerous awards including the Notable American Women and most recently in December 2007, the Washington Business Journal’s Awards for Financial Excellence.

Marlena Lanham-Tracy

Community Impact Senior Vice President,
United Way of the National Capital Area

Marlena is an accomplished non-profit leader with 24 years of experience in program development, organizational management, strategic planning, resource development, fund distribution, volunteer development, and community relations. A key strategic and tactical contributor in efforts to impact systems, Marlena brings valuable insight and knowledge about the public and private sector.

She began her United Way career in Pascagoula, Mississippi where she was recruited for the position as Associate Director by the Board of Directors. Demonstrating initiative in many ways, Marlena re-engineered the campaign process and designed an award winning information and referral system which was vital in connecting people with critical services. Marlena was recruited for the Head Start Board and served as an officer for 2 consecutive terms.

Her accomplishments did not end there. She moved back to Maryland in 1981 and began working for United Way of the National Capital Area. Marlena has served in many capacities including Eligibility and Budget Analyst, DC Campaign Director, and Regional Director for DC, Montgomery County and Prince Georges County. She is currently the Senior Vice President, Community Impact.

She organized a series of televised United Way Day of Caring Programs, managed the first Success by Six Home Visitation programs in ward 8, coordinated a series of Teenage Appreciation programs and raised a total of more than $60 million for the United Way campaign. Marlena was instrumental in organizing the 1997 National Minority Conference for United Way.

Marlena earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology, Clinical Emphasis, from Morgan State University. She went on to advance her education in Social Work at the University of Southern Mississippi. She is a graduate of Leadership Greater Washington Class of 2008 and class president of the 1998 Prince Georges County Civilian Police Academy. She has received certification in the following courses:

Accounting Fundamentals
Enhancing Managerial Effectiveness
Consultative Selling
Coaching for Performance Excellence
Fund Raising Concepts and Principles
Maximizing Volunteers Participation

Fund Raising Innovations & Key Market Leadership
Principles & Practices of Community Building
Non-profit Management
Branching Out in Fund Raising
Advanced Program Management
Program Evaluation & Outcome Measurement