The annual Funders Forum provides the opportunity for organizations and funders to come together to learn and understand the operations and needs of the nonprofit sector. In this year's virtual Funders Forum we will hear from regional foundation leaders as they look back and forecast their roles as the philanthropic sector continues to evolve.

Following the panel discussion, each foundation leader will facilitate a breakout session to allow for direct questions from attendees. Panelists include Jay Culotta from the Wawa Foundation, Paralee Knight from Wells Fargo, Yocasta Lora of AARP Pennsylvania and Kimberly Kirn of Impact 100 Philadelphia.

Jay Culotta

Jay Culotta is the Treasurer and Assistant Secretary for Wawa, Inc. Jay is responsible for all corporate treasury activities of the Company and numerous other corporate initiatives, including being a member of the Wawa Retirements Plan Committee and an officer of several wholly owned subsidiaries of the Company. Jay has worked at Wawa for over 24 years, previously holding positions of Assistant Controller, Director of Accounting and Taxation and Controller.

Prior to joining Wawa, Jay worked in the audit practice of Deloitte in both the New Orleans and Philadelphia offices.
Jay graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting in 1978. He obtained his Master of Business Administration from Saint Joseph’s University and is a certified public accountant.

Jay is deeply involved in the community. He is the President and Chairman of the Board of The Wawa Foundation Inc., a non-profit organization created to enhance and focus Wawa’s significant charitable giving. Jay is also a member of several other non-profit Boards, with a focus on serving children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Jay has a family fund raising initiative that supports the Down Syndrome Clinic and Research Center of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, MD, in honor of his daughter, Hannah Rose Culotta.

Paralee Knight

Paralee Knight is the Vice President of Community Relations in the Social Impact and Sustainability Group at the Wells Fargo Foundation for New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. In this role she manages functions related to Philanthropy Operations that are responsible for resource coordination of complex regional programs.  She also works on initiatives and processes for Wells Fargo’s reputation management in the communities it serves, manages stakeholder relationships and facilitates programs to drive team member engagement.

Paralee is also actively involved in the music industry where the scope of her work has included song writing, artist management, artist development, consultation, music production, event planning/management, creative direction, and video production assistance.  She is a BMI affiliated songwriter/publisher and an active member of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Recording Academy.

Paralee’s community involvement includes serving on the Board of Directors for World Café Live, a nonprofit organization in Philadelphia, PA that creates innovative, boundary-crossing music programming and arts education. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Ronald McDonald House of Southern NJ, a non-profit dedicated to providing hope, help and home for families of seriously ill children.

Yocasta Lora

Yocasta Lora serves as Associate State Director of Advocacy & Community Engagement at AARP Pennsylvania. She implements national and state initiatives to strengthen and align state and local advocacy and community relations to create housing, transportation, and public spaces that are affordable, accessible, and livable for people of all ages.

Yocasta has served as an advisor and board member for multiple nonprofit and government agencies. Currently, she serves as a board member for The Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance (DVSGA),  the City of Philadelphia Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity (CEO), Share Food Program, HACE, and SEPTA Reimagining Regional Rail Stakeholder Committee.

She is passionate about creating equitable spaces that intersect design, policy, and governance while transforming the built environment and focusing on sustainable, equitable, and inclusive growth. She received the Philadelphia Urbanist Changemaker of the Year, Al Dia 40 Under Forty Next Generation of Women Leaders: Rising Stars, Business and Professional Women (BPW), Professional of the Year Award, the International Community Service Award, The AL Dia Women of Merit Award.

Yocasta has a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A) degree from La Salle University and received Certificates in Women's Leadership from Yale University and Communication Strategy from Harvard University.

Kimberly Kirn

Kimberly Kirn is Executive Director of Impact 100 Philadelphia, a grant-making organization that engages women to collectively fund large grants and community awards. For more than 20 years, Kim has worked to help individuals and communities engage with the social issues that matter to them. She began her career as a legislative correspondent for then-Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., then returned to her hometown to serve in a variety of leadership roles within Philadelphia’s nonprofit community. She was Executive Director of Need in Deed, a city-wide organization that connects classrooms with their communities, from 2012-2018 and has provided capacity-building support to the Center for High Impact Philanthropy and the Free Library of Philadelphia. Kim holds a masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College’s Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute and a 2010 Leadership Philadelphia Fellow. Kim lives in Center City with her husband and two growing boys.