Academy for Nonprofit Excellence

Naomi Takeuchi

Naomi Takeuchi is founder and president of 1000 Cranes, LLC in Durham, NC.  As a sustainable strategic planning and leadership consultant, she assists organizations through thoughtful business planning, organizational development and social entrepreneurship. She has been a member of the Duke University Nonprofit Management Program faculty for many years. Naomi is a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA) and is one of the few Asian-American women on the speaking circuit.   dual member.  She is also a member of the Social Enterprise Alliance and throughout her career has presented to executives, board members, senior staff, and consultants in eight countries worldwide.
Naomi has an undergraduate degree from the UC Berkeley and earned her Executive MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With over twenty years of experience in the biotech and computer science fields working in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors, Naomi has taken her wealth of knowledge of high performance, profitable systems and has integrated these concepts into a customized consulting practice specializing in Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship.

Annette Kane-Shine

Annette Kane-Shine has a full range of professional human resource experience including organization development and training, employee relations, and recruitment & selection.  Most recently, Annette served for 3 ½ years as the Senior Organization Development & Training Specialist for the Navy Exchange Command, in Norfolk, Virginia teaching for and managing the Command’s Executive Skills Development program. 

For the eight years prior to that experience, Annette was employed by the City of Chesapeake, Department of Human Resources where she implemented Chesapeake Leadership University, the City’s premier leadership training program for high performing individuals. She facilitates workshops for a number of different clients through Tidewater Community College’s Division of Workforce Development and serves as Adjunct Faculty for the College. 

Her subject matter expertise is in the area of communication skills and leadership development, and her teaching topics cover a variety of areas including trust building in teams, leading and managing change, coaching, mentoring and providing feedback, & generational diversity.  She is certified to deliver the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® workshops as well as FranklinCovey® material.  Annette’s formal credentials include a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from The University of San Diego and a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Interpersonal Communications from Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Annette holds her SPHR (Senior Professional Human Resource) certification. 

Amy Nisenson

Amy Nisenson assumed the role of Executive Director of The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation in May 2009. The mission of the MMP Foundation is to provide financial support principally for capital projects for organizations in the Commonwealth of Virginia exempt from taxation under the Internal Revenue Code. As Executive Director, Amy is responsible for the day to day operations of the foundation and the due diligence and allocation of $3-4 million in grants annually. In addition to her role as Executive Director of the Foundation, Amy works with small and emerging nonprofits in the Richmond community in a consultant role, assisting with grant research, grant writing, board development, and other functions associated with sustaining a nonprofit. Amy also teaches classes at the University of Richmond in the Institute on Philanthropy.

Prior to her position at The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation, Amy served as Vice President and Community Affairs Manager for Wachovia Corporation from 2005 to 2008.  As Community Affairs Manager, she was responsible for implementing Wachovia’s community affairs programs, including the evaluation of corporate contribution requests, Best practices contributions management, and strategic community planning for the Central and Eastern Virginia Regions. Previously, Amy had responsibility for the 3-state Mid-Atlantic Region of Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC.  In addition, Amy was responsible for providing leadership infrastructure, including management advisor and chapter leadership for WachoviaVolunteer! Chapters in primary markets, which encourage and support employees for community service work.

Prior to her work in grantmaking, Amy was the Special Projects Manager and Director of the Virginia College Dream Foundation, where she helped develop and manage the Agency’s Employer Sponsorship program, which marketing Virginia’s 529 College Savings Plans to private employers throughout the Commonwealth. In addition, Amy managed the activities of a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to providing at-risk children with scholarships for college.

Amy is a graduate of the University of Virginia and has been honored by the Richmond YWCA as one of the 10 Outstanding Women of the Year in Volunteerism. She is a graduate of the 2001 class of Leadership Metro Richmond and the 2006 class of Lead Virginia. Amy currently serves on many local, statewide, and national nonprofit boards including: The United Way of Greater Richmond and Petersburg, Leadership Metro Richmond, the Partnership for Nonprofit Excellence, Communities and Schools of Virginia, and Jewish Women International. Amy is married and has 2 college-age children.

Nathaniel Pierce, Esq.

Nathaniel R. Pierce (“Nat”) is one of the founding members of the Keel Group and is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia. He works out of the Keel Group Ltd’s Virginia Beach office and he supervises the New Jersey office.

Nat has extensive experience in corporate transactional matters including company formation issues, mergers, acquisitions, company divestitures, commercial disputes and litigation, transactional due diligence and the drafting, review and negotiation of contracts across industry and subject matter. In addition to corporate and transactional work, Nat also has experience in the areas of non-profit law, securities law issues, commercial and residential real estate and alternative dispute resolution.

Nat grew up in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, and came to Virginia to attend Regent University School of Law.  Nat completed his undergraduate degree in business and economics at Messiah College.  He has also traveled extensively studying abroad in Athens at the University of LaVerne, and is an alumni of the International Business Institute a study program which exposes business students to 15 countries and various corporate headquarters and governmental offices throughout Europe, while studying international trends in global marketing, international finance, global business strategy and comparative economic systems.

Nat earned a Juris Doctor from Regent University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science, Business Administration/Economics, Cum Laude – Messiah College.