Staff - The Long Island Community Foundation
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Meet Our Team


The LICF staff are all Long Islanders bringing to their work a profound knowledge of the region, its 2.8 million people, institutions, and resources. LICF staff have earned college and advanced degrees in business, social work, education, law, marketing, public administration, urban policy, history, and nonprofit management. They bring an understanding of public policy and the ability to see "the big picture," expertise in examining nonprofit credentials and assessing local efforts, and ingenuity to help initiate new and innovative collaborations to resolve regional problems.

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Jeannie Demaio
Grants Administrator & Office Manager

Jeannie has over thirty years of corporate and not-for-profit experience, specializing in program administration. Jeannie’s enthusiasm and commitment to community service was cultivated during her career with LILCO/KeySpan. Supporting a senior executive who managed the both the KeySpan Foundation and Environmental & Community Affairs, she got involved with many local organizations and various community improvement projects. Always seeking ways to help protect the environment, she implemented a corporate cell phone donation program and coordinated several beach and park clean-up projects.

Jeanne left KeySpan to pursue a career in the not-for-profit community. She provided her administrative, grant writing and event planning skills to several local organizations, including the Nature Conservancy of Long Island, the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research, and the Long Island Philharmonic.

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Melissa B. Greenberger
Program Officer

Melissa joined the Long Island Community Foundation in November 2021.  As program officer, she supports the Foundation’s competitive grantmaking, as well as our special initiatives and collaborative funds. Her grants portfolio includes the issue areas of Arts & Culture, Conservation and the Environment, Health, Mental Health, Hunger, and Technical Assistance. In her role, she is building on LICF’s knowledge of our region’s strengths, challenges, resources, and needs.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Melissa was Senior Staff Attorney at Pro Bono Partnership where she provided direct legal services to nonprofit organizations in New York (Long Island office), recruited and coordinated volunteer attorneys to assist clients, and presented legal workshops on topics relevant to nonprofit executives and board members.

Melissa previously served as the Pro Bono Innovator at Nassau Suffolk Law Services Committee, Inc. and combined teaching and public interest law while serving as Practitioner in Residence for the Mortgage Foreclosure Clinic and as staff attorney for the Civil Rights Litigation Clinic and Senior Citizens Law Program at Touro Law Center. She has served as a Small Claims Arbitrator in the Suffolk County District Courts and as the Associate Village Justice in the Village of Lake Grove. She teaches law and ethics courses at Suffolk County Community College. Melissa is a graduate of Dickinson College and Touro Law Center, and is admitted to the New York State Bar.

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Sol Marie Alfonso Jones
Program Director

Sol Marie has been with the Long Island Community Foundation (LICF) since the Spring of 2009. As senior program officer, she manages the Foundation’s competitive grantmaking programs in the areas of Education, Youth Development, and Community and Economic Development. She also leads the Foundation’s strategic initiatives, including ensuring an accurate census count, developing regional solutions to racial and economic inequities, advancing fair and affordable housing, improving the performance of minority-owned small businesses, and supporting an inclusive and representative democracy.

Sol Marie has more than 30 years of experience in nonprofit management, community building, program development, and evaluation. Prior to LICF, she worked at Sustainable Long Island where she directed the organization’s community revitalization and brownfield redevelopment programs. She also served as director of the Fight for Families Coalition, an alliance of health and human service, community-based agencies working to enhance service delivery systems in Nassau County. Before her employ on Long Island, Sol Marie spent 17 years working in New York City: 12 years overseeing youth development programs at Sponsors for Educational Opportunity and five years as a community liaison in Governor Mario Cuomo’s Office of Hispanic Affairs.

Sol Marie is an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Social Welfare. She is a co-chair of Engage New York, a network of foundation leaders across the State working to advance equity, social justice, and civic and community participation, and chair of the Funders Census Initiative, a working group of the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation that mobilizes philanthropic engagement towards a fair and accurate Census. Additionally, she is on the Board of Directors of the Funders Committee for Civic Participation and the Regional Plan Association. In 2022, Sol Marie was elected to serve on the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council state panel on business aid. She also is a member of a NYS Health Foundation advisory committee that informs its grantmaking to community-based, BIPOC-led, nonprofits addressing institutional food and/or Food As Medicine programs.

A graduate of the University of Rochester, Sol Marie received a B.A. in 1987. She is a member of the Energeia Partnership’s class of 2011, a leadership academy dedicated to identifying and addressing complex and multi-dimensional issues challenging the Long Island region.

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David M. Okorn
Executive Director

David M. Okorn has been the executive director of LICF since 2010. He began his career at
LICF in 2008 as the Foundation’s director of advancement and donor relations. Previously, he was the senior vice president of development and external relations at Abilities, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of adults and children with disabilities. Prior to that he held positions as director of community relations at KeySpan and executive director of the KeySpan Foundation.

Dave received his B.S. and M.S. in Business Administration and Energy Management at New York Institute of Technology -Old Westbury. He is a member of the board of directors of the Long Island Volunteer Center and the Better Business Bureau Foundation. Dave was recently appointed as a Member of the Long Island State Park, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commission by NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo.

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Marie C. Smith
Director of Donor Relations & Communications

Marie C. Smith has been the director of donor relations and communications at LICF since April 2011. Marie provides excellent service to donors while effectively promoting the Foundation’s mission and activities. Prior to joining LICF, she was the section manager of strategic partnerships at Consolidated Edison where she led the company’s corporate giving strategy and managed community relations, charitable giving, volunteerism, and special events programs.

A graduate of Hofstra University, Marie has a B.S. in Business Administration and completed her Masters in Organizational Leadership with Mercy College in 2002. She is the former chairperson for the NYC Contributions Advisory Group (CAG), a 21/64 Certified Advisor and is certified in Planned Giving from Molloy College.