The Weitzman Speaker Series invites philanthropists and philanthropic experts to share their insights and experience with the Penn community. All Penn students are invited to engage these influential leaders to learn how philanthropy can do more good. Alumni, faculty, staff, as well as professionals and community members are also welcome.
Implemented by Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2) in collaboration with the Center for High Impact Philanthropy (CHIP), and endowed by Stuart Weitzman, a 1963 graduate of the Wharton School, the Weitzman Speaker Series in High Impact Philanthropy brings philanthropists and philanthropic experts to campus to discuss the many ways philanthropy can create greater impact.
2026 Event
Philanthropy in 4D: A fireside chat with Carra Cote-Ackah
A multidimensional personal and professional journey in philanthropy
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Location: 356 Stiteler Hall, 37th Walk, University of Pennsylvania campus, Philadelphia
Few people have worked across as many dimensions of modern philanthropy as Carra Cote-Ackah, now head of Philanthropy Engagement and Legacy Planning for the Goldman Sachs Family Office. In conversation with Katherina “Kat” Rosqueta, founding executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy, Carra will share lessons from her philanthropic journey, touching on intergenerational tensions in family philanthropy, the challenges and opportunities of corporate giving, the intersection of wealth and gender, and impact investing. She’ll also explain why she embraces a pluralistic view of philanthropy’s role in society. Space is limited for this free event. Lunch will be served.
Carra Cote-Ackah is head of Philanthropy Engagement and Legacy Planning for the Goldman Sachs Family Office. In this role, she partners across the business to implement and execute on a holistic philanthropy strategy for clients and a customized education advisory program to support multigenerational legacy and stewardship. Carra joined Goldman Sachs as a managing director in 2022.
Prior to joining the firm, Carra concentrated in family enterprises and systems, including bespoke consulting and multi-year partnerships with ultra-high net worth families; global philanthropy, volunteerism, and sustainability/responsibility programs for Vanguard; and strategic partnerships spanning nonprofit agencies, family-owned businesses, and the public sector.
Carra currently serves as a senior fellow at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy where she teaches and provides ongoing guidance to donors and impact investors. She is also a member of and recently served as chapter chair for the Philadelphia Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), as well as a member of the Chief Executives Organization, which is reserved for distinguished YPO leaders. She is an active third generation member within her family business and recently completed her 20 year tenure with the Surdna Foundation, as a fifth generation member of one of the oldest and largest family foundations in the U.S.
Carra earned dual BS degrees, summa cum laude, in Psychology and Child Development from Vanderbilt University, an MA specializing in Public Policy and Racial Inequality from Duke University and an MBA in Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Katherina ‘Kat’ M. Rosqueta is the founding executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy and a senior fellow at the Wharton Center for Leadership & Change Management. She also serves as the faculty co-director of High Impact Philanthropy Academy and adjunct faculty in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2). Founded as a collaboration between SP2 and alumni of the Wharton School, the Center for High Impact Philanthropy is the premier source of knowledge and education on how philanthropy can do more good.
Kat serves on the boards of Greenlight Fund, a national network matching local communities’ unmet needs with evidence-based social innovations; World Education Services, the leading provider of credential evaluation services in North America; and CCS, a global fundraising, strategy and analytics company. In her hometown, she serves on the Selection Advisory Council of Greenlight Fund Philadelphia and the Capitalization Committee of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), Philadelphia’s public-private economic development corporation. She is the former chair of the board of Candid (merger of Foundation Center and Guidestar), the world’s largest source of information on nonprofits and foundations; past board president of La Casa de las Madres (San Francisco’s oldest and largest shelter for battered women and their children); past chair of the United Way’s Bay Area Week of Caring, and co-founder and past executive committee member of the Women’s MBA Network.
Her work and comments have been cited in numerous publications including the New York Times, Slate, Money Magazine, Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the Wall Street Journal. She speaks frequently on social impact management and philanthropy and has lectured at the Wharton Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, University of California Haas School of Business, and the University of San Francisco’s Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management.
Before accepting her appointment to launch the Center, Kat was a consultant with McKinsey & Company; a consultant to the founding team of New Schools Venture Fund; founding director of Board Match Plus, a San Francisco program dedicated to strengthening nonprofit boards; and program manager of Wells Fargo’s Corporate Community Development Group.
Kat received her a BA from Yale University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was the 2012 recipient of the Wharton Women in Business Kathleen McDonald Distinguished Alumna Award, a 2011 recipient of the Brava! Women Business Achievement Award, the 2020 recipient of the Margaret Bailey Speer Award, and named one of Unboxed Philanthropy’s Philanthropy 100, a list of people, organizations and companies making a positive difference in our world.
Mona Sinha is the Global Executive Director of Equality Now, an organization that campaigns for legal and systemic change around the world to address violence and discrimination against women and girls.
For 25 years, Mona has leveraged her corporate experience to launch, lead or advise over 90 mission-aligned organizations to create a gender-equal world. She is the Board Chair of Women Moving Millions and serves on the Executive Council of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, as well as the Advisory Board of Gucci CHIME. Creating inclusive communities is at the center of her strategic approach, which she believes is the key to unlocking sustainable organizational growth.
Mona has received wide recognition for her work to advance equality. In 2023, she was listed in Forbes 50 Over 50 for her impact as a leader driving change for a better future. She’s the recipient of the 2023 Horton Award for Excellence in Social Enterprise from Columbia Business School and CARE USA’s 2021 Impact Award. She was presented the Last Girl Champion Award by Gloria Steinem and Apne Aap in 2017 and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2015. She’s also received awards from Smith College, Children’s Hope India, Modern High School (Kolkata), Women’s eNews, and Breakthrough.
Sara S. Bachman, PhD is Dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) at the University of Pennsylvania, where she leads the school community in its passionate pursuit of social justice. Under her direction, the School of Social Policy & Practice offers top-ranked degree programs, certificates, and dual degrees anchored by rigorous academics and world-class faculty. SP2’s transformative approach, grounded in impactful research, scholarship and community engagement, fosters the development of impactful social change agents. At Penn, Dr. Bachman also serves on the Governing Board of the Leonard Davis Institute; the Advisory Board of the Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy; and as Senior Fellow of the Center for Public Health Initiatives.
Dr. Bachman’s social policy and practice expertise focuses on health care financing and organization innovation, especially with respect to Medicaid and alternative payment strategies. She has over twenty years’ experience with health policy research and program evaluation in the areas of health care finance, health reform, social work, health equity, and state health policy for individuals with disabilities or complex health and social conditions, including children and youth with special health care needs.
Stuart Weitzman, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1963, is one of the most recognizable names in luxury designer footwear. He founded his eponymous company in 1986. In the ensuing decades, he built Stuart Weitzman into one of the world’s most renowned fashion footwear brands. In 2015, Weitzman orchestrated the sale of Stuart Weitzman, LLC to Coach (which was renamed Tapestry in October 2017 to reflect its multi-brand identity). Weitzman stayed on as the Creative Director for the company through May 2017 and remained Chairman Emeritus through 2018.
In February 2019, the University announced the naming of the School of Design in recognition of Stuart’s ongoing philanthropic support of the University and his active engagement in its academic activities. He is currently a member of the Weitzman School’s Board of Advisors, The Baker Retailing Center’s Industry Advisory Board, and, since 2018, he has been an Entrepreneur-in-Residence during which he visits campus two times each year to speak to and mentor Penn students.
Weitzman has many interests and is engaged with many institutions, including the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, the U.S. Olympic Committee, the Maccabiah Games in Israel, and the New York Historical Society, to name a few. He is working with the Spanish government to build a museum in Madrid dedicated to Spanish-Jewish history and is a producer of two Broadway musicals.
The Rev. Charles “Chaz” L. Howard, PhD is the University Chaplain and Vice President for Social Equity and Community at the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater. Prior to his return to Penn, he served as a chaplain in hospice and hospital and as a street outreach worker to individuals experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. His writing has been featured in such publications as Black Arts Quarterly, Black Theology: An International Journal, Daily Good, Urban Cusp, Sojourners Magazine, Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Huffington Post, and Slate. He is the editor of The Souls of Poor Folk, which explored new ways of considering homelessness and poverty, The Awe and The Awful, a poetry collection and Lenten Devotional, Black Theology as Mass Movement, a call to theologians to expand the reach of their theological work, and Pond River Ocean Rain, a small book about going deeper with a big God.
Chaz has taught in the College of Arts and Sciences and in the Graduate School of Education at Penn, as well as at The Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia. He shares life with his beloved wife, Dr. Lia C. Howard and their three daughters. He sees his vocational calling to be to work for a communal increase in joy, peace, justice and love.