Barberton Community Foundation Expands Team to Strengthen Grantmaking and Community Impact | Barberton Community Foundation

BARBERTON, Ohio – Barberton Community Foundation has hired Marissa Little as Director of Community Impact, a strategic role focused on strengthening the Foundation’s grantmaking, relationships with community partners, and ability to understand and measure the impact of its investments.

Little will lead the Foundation’s grantmaking process and work closely with nonprofit and community partners to identify emerging needs and opportunities, understand the work already happening in Barberton, and connect the Foundation’s resources with efforts that advance its long-term priorities.

“Marissa brings the combination of community knowledge, thoughtful analysis, and nonprofit experience we were looking for in this role,” said Josh Gordon, executive director of Barberton Community Foundation. “She already knows Barberton because she has spent years working directly with residents and community organizations here. She also understands the rigor behind good grantmaking, from assessing opportunities and managing complex funding to tracking whether investments are achieving their intended results."

Carrie Herman, who has managed the Foundation’s grants and scholarship programs since joining the organization in 2019, will transition to the previously announced role of Director of Scholarships. Dividing the grantmaking and scholarship responsibilities between two dedicated positions gives the Foundation greater capacity to support students through its growing scholarship program while strengthening its approach to strategic grantmaking and community partnerships.

"Carrie Herman has done an incredible job managing both grants and scholarships as each has grown in scale and complexity," Gordon said. "Creating dedicated leadership for both areas gives Marissa the opportunity to build on a strong foundation while allowing Carrie can focus more deeply on students and scholarships to enable more strong career pathways for our graduates.”

As Director of Community Impact, Little will oversee the grants administration process from applications and site visits through Grants Committee review, award administration, and outcome tracking. She will maintain relationships with current grant partners, identify potential new partners, and work with organizations throughout the grant lifecycle to understand progress, challenges, and opportunities related to the focused work of the Foundation's strategic plan.

Little will also work closely with Program Officer for Education LeAnn Starlin Nilsson, Ph.D., who leads the Foundation’s systems-focused work in Birth-to-5 Early Learning and Workforce Development & Career Pathways. Nilsson will bring research, subject-area expertise, and partnership development to those priorities, while Little will lead the grantmaking process that supports investments in that work. The two roles will collaborate on grant analysis, committee preparation, and the Foundation’s understanding of results.

Little will also help maintain a dashboard of outcomes from Foundation funding and grant partners, giving the Foundation a clearer picture of how individual grants contribute to the broader community outcomes identified in its Strategic Plan.

Little brings more than a decade of experience in community development, nonprofit leadership, grant management, program development, and partnership building. She joins the Foundation from Habitat for Humanity of Summit County, where she most recently served as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. In that role, she provided strategic direction for neighborhood revitalization and community-building initiatives and managed major grants, partnerships, operations, and other organizational responsibilities.

Her connection to Barberton began years before joining the Foundation. From 2021 to 2026, Little worked directly with residents in Barberton and Akron through Habitat for Humanity and the Neighborhood Network program, using an asset-based community development approach that helped neighborhoods build on their existing strengths, relationships, and resources.

At Habitat, Little also developed and launched the organization’s Aging in Place program in 2021 through a partnership with Summa Health. What began as a pilot serving six older homeowners grew into a larger initiative after Little secured Habitat’s first direct $900,000 HUD Older Adults Home Modification grant to assist 120 homeowners with accessibility modifications.

Little holds a Master of Science in Higher Education Administration from The University of Akron, with supporting areas in finance, policy, law, and grantsmanship, as well as a Master of Science in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Science in Adolescent-Young Adult Education from Ohio University. She received the Greater Akron Chamber’s 30 For The Future Award in 2022 and completed professional development through NeighborWorks, Heart to Heart Leadership, Women’s Network, and other organizations.

Little began her new role with Barberton Community Foundation on September 28, 2026.