Richard Hersh and Judith Meyers Fund

Richard Hersh and Judith Meyers have had lifelong careers dedicated to promoting the healthy development of children and youth, with Richard’s focus on education and Judith’s on children’s physical and mental health. 

Hersh’s career spanned from his early years as a high school teacher to serving as a college president at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY, and Trinity College in Hartford. Most recently, he was a faculty member in the Education Studies Program at Yale University. 

Meyers is a clinical and community psychologist who was president and chief executive officer of the Children’s Fund, a public charitable foundation, and the Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut, where she was at the forefront of helping to develop policies and systems to address children’s pediatric and primary health and mental health care. 

“For the last thirty years, we’ve both been heavily involved in philanthropy on both the giving and receiving ends. I was always raising money as a college president,” Hersh said. “Judith worked at the Annie E. Casey Foundation and then the Children’s Fund, and served on the Board of the CT Council of Philanthropy for 8 years, including as chair. We have a deep appreciation for the role of philanthropy and the challenge of giving money responsibly. To give money, you have to decide where you can have the most impact that aligns with your values.” 

When it came time to do their own estate planning, Hersh and Meyers chose to establish a donor advised fund at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and include a bequest to The Foundation in their estate plans. In addition to supporting education, mental health, children and families, their fund will also focus on arts and culture, which they say has greatly enriched their lives

They came to better understand and learn about The Foundation when Meyers served on the grants committee for the Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund. “The Foundation brought partners together to quickly distribute money where it was needed most in a time of incredible need,” Meyers said. 

The couple has lived in the New Haven area for close to 25 years, first in Hamden and North Haven and for the past seven years in Guilford. They have been actively involved in volunteering, with Hersh serving on the Guilford Board of Education, and Meyers serving on the boards of The Guilford Foundation and the United Way of Greater New Haven, where she is currently chair, and most recently as a CT Hospice volunteer. They created a scholarship fund with The Guilford Foundation to support Guilford High School students in need who plan to pursue a liberal arts degree at a four-year college. 

“One of the things we like about The Community Foundation is its focus on systems change,” Meyers noted. “In addition to giving out money for immediate concerns — which is important — they also look at the systems and policies that support these programs, which has a longer-term impact.”