Shirin E. Harrell, Esq. is the President and Founder of Philoptima,llc. She earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University and is a practicing attorney before all Louisiana state courts and all federal courts. Shirin holds an MBA degree from Tulane University and is a Registered Nurse having earned her undergraduate nursing degree from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts.

She has extensive business management and marketing experience as a senior officer of a large, life & health insurance company with interstate and international responsibilities for health products. She is also an experienced entrepreneur with start-up skills, and she has held other senior corporate leadership roles in marketing, strategic planning, public relations, and new product development.  Shirin is a member of the Philoptima Faculty.

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Dr. Byron Harrell is author of “Supercharged Giving: The Professionals Guide to Strategic Philanthropy” scheduled for distribution in late 2008. He is the President/CEO of a large private foundation with assets approaching $300 million.  Byron is a frequent lecturer and author on strategic philanthropy based on “concept mapping” which graphically links a funder\'s mission to strategies, objectives, and  individual grants through measurable impact models.

Harrell is passionate about boosting grant making outcomes through carefully applied and well researched community solutions. He holds a Doctor of Science degree from Tulane University with a primary interest in organizational theory as applied to the performance of private foundations. His current research focuses on the design of successful foundations and in validating measurement methodologies. He has more than twenty-five years of experience in health services research, health systems management, health maintenance organizations and related fields including service as the CEO of a system of acute care hospitals.  Byron is a member of the Philoptima Faculty.

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