Sol Marie has been with the Long Island Community Foundation (LICF) since Spring of 2009. As senior program officer, she manages the Foundation’s competitive grantmaking programs in the areas of Education, Youth Development, and Community and Economic Development. She also leads the Foundation’s strategic initiatives, including ensuring an accurate census count, developing regional solutions to racial and economic inequities, advancing fair and affordable housing, improving the performance of minority-owned small businesses, and helping to combat Long Island’s opioid crisis.
Sol Marie has more than 25 years’ experience in nonprofit management, community building, program development and evaluation. Prior to LICF she worked at Sustainable Long Island where she directed the organization’s community revitalization and brownfield redevelopment programs. She also served as director of the Fight for Families Coalition, an alliance of health and human service, community-based agencies working to enhance service delivery systems in Nassau County. Before her employ on Long Island, Sol Marie spent 17 years working in New York City: 12 years overseeing youth development programs at Sponsors for Educational Opportunity and five years as a community liaison in Governor Mario Cuomo’s Office of Hispanic Affairs.
Sol Marie is an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Social Welfare. She is co-chair of Engage New York, a network of foundation leaders across the State working to advance equity, social justice, civic and community participation, and chair of the Funders’ Census Initiative, a working group of the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation that mobilizes philanthropic engagement towards a fair and accurate Census. Additionally, she is on the Board of Directors of the Regional Plan Association and served on its Steering Committee for the Fourth Regional Plan. In 2022, Sol Marie was elected to serve on the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council state panel on business aid. She also served as a member of the NYS Health Foundation Community Advisory Committee which reports to NYS Health’s President and CEO and broaden community input and perspectives on the development and implementation of activities related to NYS Health’s strategic priorities.
A graduate of the University of Rochester, Sol Marie received a B.A. in 1987. She is a member of the Energeia Partnership’s class of 2011, a leadership academy dedicated to identifying and addressing complex and multi-dimensional issues challenging the Long Island region.
Sol Marie lives in the hamlet of New Cassel with her husband and two daughters.
