Food Bank Appoints Persephone Zill as Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships and Advocacy

Persephone Zill was recently named Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships and Advocacy for the Food Bank for Westchester, the county’s largest provider of services, resources and education to meet the needs of the 200,000 Westchester County residents who face chronic food insecurity.

The Food Bank is the backbone of the county’s hunger relief network, serving 265 front-line programs, food pantries, soup kitchens and child and adult daycare programs that get food directly into the hands of Westchester’s hungry population.

In her new role, Zill will use her extensive background in business, training, counseling, marketing, social media and strategic planning to raise awareness about hunger and help the Food Bank advocate for initiatives that will close the county’s meal gap and help bring county residents to self-sufficiency.

Previously, Zill worked for the Women’s Enterprise Development Corporation (WEDC) since 2008 and served as its Program Director and Business Counselor. In this role, she developed curriculum and oversaw entrepreneurial training programs that served approximately 1,800 clients annually, including 60 hour classes, monthly workshops and annual networking events.

During her time with WEDC, Zill successfully engaged members of the entrepreneurial community as partners to support WEDC’s clients in programs and events. She also worked to develop and deliver successful programs through partnerships she built with Con Edison, the Lanza Foundation, the Eileen Fisher Corporation and others.

Prior to WEDC, Zill was the Project Manager for the Spiritual Literacy Pilot Project funded by the Fetzer Institute, where she worked closely with the Executive Director to market and execute a two-year study with 30 diverse groups from hospitals, retirement centers, churches and prisons. She also marketed e-courses and managed the online community.

In 2012, Zill co-founded the Conscious Business Impact Meetup Group (CBIG), which brings not-for-profit and for-profit executives together to explore ways business leaders can have a positive impact on the communities in which they operate.

Earlier in her career, Zill worked for the City Parks Foundation as the Assistant Controller and was the Manager of Operations at the American Ballet Theater. She also served as an Adjunct Professor in Entrepreneurship at NYU, The New School and the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Zill received a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University and an MBA from Baruch College at City University of New York. She lives in Hastings-on-Hudson with her husband and two teenage children.

About The Food Bank for Westchester
Incorporated in 1988, The Food Bank for Westchester is one of eight food banks in New York State. It acquires, warehouses and distributes more than 7 million pounds of food annually to 265 frontline hunger-relief programs, including food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, day care and residential programs serving the nearly 200,000 Westchester residents who are hungry or at risk of being hungry. Based in Elmsford, NY, the Food Bank is located in a 36,000square foot warehouse and is home to Westchester’s largest freezer. For more information, visit www.foodbankforwestchester.org.