Iskander to leave Rice for top job with national organization

Iskander to leave Rice for top job with national organization

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News staff

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) will soon benefit from the leadership of a Rice graduate and an adviser to President David Leebron.

Maryana Iskander ’97 has been named executive vice president of PPFA, the largest provider of reproductive health care in the U.S. She will leave Rice Aug. 18 to assume her new role in New York City.

Maryana Iskander

“Maryana has served as adviser to the president since my arrival two years ago, and her service to Rice has been invaluable,” President Leebron said. “She has been involved in virtually every new initiative emanating from the Office of the President. In particular, she played lead roles in organizing our engagement with Houston, including the Passport to Houston program, and in managing the Call to Conversation and the Vision for the Second Century processes. Behind the scenes, she has helped manage communications and execution with numerous constituencies, both within and outside the university.”

In addition to having a Bachelors of Arts from Rice, Iskander is a graduate of Yale Law School and Oxford University, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Last month she was selected by the Aspen Institute as one of 20 Henry Crown Fellows, an honor awarded to young executives who have already achieved considerable success and have the potential to provide leadership at the highest levels.

Iskander will demonstrate such leadership at Planned Parenthood, which has 121 affiliates operating 860 health clinics in all 50 states with a combined budget exceeding $800 million. As executive vice president, she will work with the president/CEO and the chief operating officer to drive the organization’s key initiatives and help implement new management systems and strategic planning. Her responsibilities will entail oversight of joint activities of senior staff in external affairs, including communications, public policy and development; communicating on behalf of the PPFA president with key internal and external stakeholders; and supervision of all staff working on board affairs, meetings, conferences and other functions.

Mark Davis

“Although it is difficult for me to leave Rice, this is a tremendous opportunity to do work that I believe matters to women and men across the country,” Iskander said. “I feel privileged to have worked with and learned from David Leebron. Rice’s future is full of promise, and I feel fortunate to have worked with so many talented people in helping the university realize its ambitions.”

In preparation for Iskander’s departure, President Leebron is currently determining the best organizational structure for the Office of the President. He has asked Mark Delos Reyes Davis, director of alumni affairs and university events, to help ease the transition.

“I am grateful to Mark, who, in addition to his current role as alumni director, has agreed to assume many of Maryana’s responsibilities after her departure,” President Leebron said.

Davis came to Rice in 2002 from his alma mater, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, where he had served as director of alumni relations.

“I have truly enjoyed working closely with Maryana during her past two years here and I possess only the highest respect for what she has contributed,” Davis said. “I am becoming even more familiar with a number of the areas for which she has been responsible and will work with the entire office to ensure a smooth transition.”

Davis will continue to serve as executive director of the Association of Rice Alumni, and he hasn’t forgotten that Iskander is a Rice alumna. “While I hate to see Maryana leave her role at Rice, I am excited about her new opportunity,” Davis said. “Nevertheless, we won’t let her go that easily. We will try to put her to work as a volunteer in New York City with our local alumni club when her new position settles down a bit.”