What follows are brief biographies of the most important leaders of the American Red Cross, including all the presidents and chairmen who have served the organization since its creation in 1881.

Clarissa (Clara) Harlowe Barton Mabel Thorp Boardman Rear Adm. William K. Van Reypen, M.D. Gen. Robert Maitland O'Reilly, M.D. Gen. George Whitefield Davis William Howard Taft Henry (Harry) Pomeroy Davison Livingston Farrand, M.D. Judge John Barton Payne Rear Adm. Cary T. Grayson	Norman H. Davis Basil O'Connor Gen. George Catlett Marshall E. Roland Harriman Ellsworth Bunker Gen. Alfred M. Gruenther Gen. James F. Collins George McKee Elsey Frank Stanton, Ph.D. Jerome (Brud) H. Holland, Ph.D.	Richard F. Schubert George F. Moody Elizabeth H. Dole Norman R. Augustine Bernadine P. Healy, M.D. David T. McLaughlin Marsha (Marty) J. Evans Bonnie McElveen-Hunter Mark W. Everson

Clarissa (Clara) Harlowe Barton (1821-1912) North Oxford, Massachusetts Founder and President (1881-1904) Humanitarian. A charismatic public figure and founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton spent the first 12 years of her professional life as a schoolteacher in Massachusetts and New Jersey. In 1853 she moved to Washington, D.C. where she worked in the U.S. Patent Office, one of the few women employed at the time by the federal government. During the Civil War, she earned the title "Angel of the Battlefield" by working as an amateur nurse and providing medical supplies, food, and moral support to the troops. In 1869, she traveled to Europe and learned about the International Red Cross Movement and the Geneva Convention that protects the sick and wounded in warfare. On her return to the United States, she began a vigorous lobbying effort to have the United States become a signatory to the Convention which finally occurred in 1882. The year before and at the age of 60, Barton established the American Red Cross. For over two decades, she served as the president of the organization, leading its disaster relief efforts at home and abroad, providing service to the U.S. military in the Spanish-American War (1898), and taking an active part in the suffragette and other social movements of the day. In 1904 she was forced to resign due to growing criticism over her alleged financial mismanagement. She continued to live in her home in Glen Echo, Maryland, which had also served for many years as the American Red Cross headquarters, until her death at the age of 90.
Mabel Thorp Boardman (1860-1946) Cleveland, Ohio Leading Volunteer (1903-1944) Philanthropist. A forceful personality with an imposing physique, the socialite Boardman spent much of her youth doing welfare work with children and had been active recruiting nurses for the Spanish-American War (1898). Appointed to the Executive Committee of the American Red Cross in 1903, she led the faction that forced Clara Barton's resignation in 1904. Assuming the dominant leadership role in the Red Cross after it received its 1905 congressional charter and until World War I, she nevertheless refused to become Chairman believing only men should occupy the position in order to retain public confidence. Under her leadership the organization established an endowment fund, drew the scattered and independent units of the Red Cross into a network of nationally chartered chapters, and undertook a major expansion of the Red Cross volunteer corps and the number of services they offered to the public. Among the services she initiated were nursing, first aid, water safety, and the Volunteer Special Services, a varied program of services established in 1920 that provided active volunteer opportunities in the years between the world wars. Considered overbearing at times, she remained active with the Red Cross until shortly before her death although she never regained the overall influence she exercised during the 1905-1917 period.
Rear Adm. William K. Van Reypen, M.D. (1840-1924) Bergen, New Jersey Chairman (1905-1906) Naval physician. Appointed Surgeon General of the Navy in 1897, Van Reypen designed the world's first hospital ship for use during the Spanish-American War. After more than 40 years of service in the navy, he retired with the rank of Rear Admiral in 1902. The same year he began his association with the Red Cross when the U.S. government appointed him as a delegate to the Seventh International Red Cross Conference held in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1904, he was elected President of the Red Cross and became its first Chairman under the new, 1905 Congressional Charter. Although his service as Chairman was brief, he remained active with the Red Cross until his death.
Gen. Robert Maitland O'Reilly, M.D. (1845-1912) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Chairman (February 1906-December 1906) Army surgeon. O'Reilly served as a medical cadet during the Civil War and as an army surgeon for more than three decades, rising to the rank of Surgeon General of the Army. He also served as White House physician and was a close friend to President Grover Cleveland. In 1906 he represented the United States at an international conference in Geneva to revise the Geneva Convention of 1864 and served briefly as Chairman of the American Red Cross.
Gen. George Whitefield Davis (1839-1918) Thompson, Connecticut Chairman (1906-1915) Engineer. Following service in the army during the Civil War, Davis became assistant engineer on the construction of the Washington Monument. Later he returned to the army and served as military governor of Puerto Rico (1899-1900) and governor of the Canal Zone, where he organized the new government before retiring in 1905. Although he served as Chairman of the Red Cross for nearly a decade, he was largely overshadowed by the dominant influence of Mabel Boardman.
William Howard Taft (1857-1930) Cincinnati, Ohio President (1906-1913) and Chairman (1915-1919) Lawyer and politician. The only man ever to serve as both President and Chief Justice of the United States, the affable Taft was also closely associated with the American Red Cross. As a young man he advanced from the practice of law to state and federal judgeships in Ohio. In 1901 President William McKinley appointed him the first civilian governor of the Philippines and in 1904 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him Secretary of War. A Republican, Taft was elected the 27th President of the United States in 1909. Defeated after one term, he was appointed chief justice in 1921 by President Warren Harding and held that position until the year of his death. A close friend of Mabel Boardman, he served as President of the Red Cross Board of Incorporators following the congressional reorganization of the Red Cross in 1905 and later as Red Cross President, both essentially titular posts at the time. In 1913, he resigned as Red Cross President in order for President Woodrow Wilson to assume the office of Honorary President of the Red Cross, thereby setting the precedent continuing to this day that the U.S. President serves as honorary leader of the Red Cross. In 1915 Taft became the principal officer of the Red Cross when he agreed to serve as Chairman of the Central Committee, although he deferred to Mabel Boardman in most matters.
Henry (Harry) Pomeroy Davison (1867-1922) Troy, Pennsylvania Chairman of War Council (1917-1919) Banker. Entering the banking field at 17, by 1899, at age 32, Davison became the youngest U.S. bank president and by World War I he was a leader in the J.P. Morgan banking enterprise. In 1917, President Wilson created a War Council to lead the Red Cross through World War I and appointed Davison as its Chairman. Under Davison's persuasive leadership, wartime contributions to the Red Cross reached the extraordinary value of $400 million, Red Cross membership grew to 31 million, including 11 million members of the newly created Junior Red Cross, and the number of Red Cross workers surpassed eight million. After the war, the dynamic and enterprising Davison spearheaded the drive to form an association of national Red Cross societies to carry on peacetime relief work and served as its first chairman. Originally called the League of Red Cross Societies, the Geneva-based association is known today as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Livingston Farrand, M.D. (1867-1939) Newark, New Jersey Chairman (1919-1921) Scientist and educator. After earning a medical degree, studying in Europe, and teaching at Columbia University, Farrand became president of the University of Colorado. A lifelong advocate for public health and an expert on tuberculosis, he became familiar with the American Red Cross while directing the International Health Board in France during World War I. At the urging of the American Red Cross War Council, President Wilson appointed Farrand to direct the organization through a difficult transition to peacetime activities after the war. An effective but very modest leader, Farrand succeeded in completing Red Cross war relief operations abroad and addressing the health needs of veterans at home. He attempted to initiate a major Red Cross public health program but it met with public disinterest and eventually ceased to be an organizational priority. Following his Red Cross service, Farrand returned to academia as president of Cornell University.
Judge John Barton Payne (1855-1935) Pruntytown, West Virginia Chairman (1921-1935) Lawyer. Judge Payne's first look at Washington, D.C. was as a 12 year-old boy who, along with two others, herded a flock of 300 turkeys on foot from rural Virginia to market in the nation's capital, a distance of 60 miles. Studying law on his own, he was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1876. Active in local Democratic politics, he practiced law and ran a newspaper in West Virginia. In 1883 he moved to Chicago where he became a leading lawyer and judge of the Cook County Supreme Court. After the United States entered World War I, he served President Wilson in a number of key positions in government agencies and on wartime boards, becoming Secretary of the Interior in 1920. The next year President Warren Harding appointed him Chairman of the Red Cross and Payne began a long and distinguished tenure in the position, being reappointed by Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Roosevelt. He also succeeded Henry P. Davison as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the League of Red Cross Societies in 1922 and continued to hold both positions until his death. A powerful public figure, Payne was revered and honored by Red Cross leaders throughout the world.
Rear Adm. Cary T. Grayson (1878-1938) Culpeper, Virginia Chairman (1935-1938) Physician. A naval surgeon, Grayson served four presidents-as the assistant White House physician to Theodore Roosevelt, as the physician assigned to the presidential yacht under William Howard Taft, as Woodrow Wilson's physician and possibly his most intimate male acquaintance, and as friend to Franklin Roosevelt who asked him to serve as Red Cross Chairman. A warm and friendly gentleman but not a strong administrator, he oversaw the relief efforts undertaken in response to the Ohio and Mississippi floods of 1937 (called "the nation's greatest disaster" at the time). His determination to enlist the Red Cross in a campaign against loss of life through automobile accidents and accidental hazards in the home blazed a new path in which many governmental and civic organizations joined. Because of his friendship with President Roosevelt, Grayson is credited for having saved many of the activities of the Red Cross from being subsumed by the federal government during the New Deal period. At the same time that he served as American Red Cross Chairman, Grayson was also Chairman of the League of Red Cross Societies.
Norman H. Davis (1878-1944) Bedford, Tennessee Chairman (1938-1944) Businessman and diplomat. As a young man, Davis aspired to a career in public service. Accordingly, he set about acquiring wealth as a businessman in Cuba so he could return to the United States and enter the public sector, which he did in 1919. For the rest of his life, he operated at the highest levels of international diplomacy and finance. Among other assignments, he served as President Wilson's Assistant Secretary of Treasury and later as Undersecretary of State. President Herbert Hoover sent him as a delegate to a General Disarmament Conference in Geneva in 1931. Appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt to the Chairmanship of the American Red Cross, Davis, who had been a member of the Red Cross Central Committee since 1920, was also elected Chairman of the Board of Governors of the League of Red Cross Societies. Though a quiet spoken, Southern gentleman, Davis nonetheless directed the American Red Cross with a firm hand in the critical period of buildup to World War II and through the first three years of U.S. involvement in the war. Under his leadership the Red Cross established relief programs for civilian war victims and prisoners of war, oversaw the dramatic expansion of the Red Cross volunteer base and the variety of services offered during wartime, and introduced the new and vitally important Red Cross blood services which saved thousands of lives during the war.
Basil O'Connor (1892-1972) Taunton, Massachusetts Chairman (1944-1947) and President (1947-1949) Lawyer. A graduate of Harvard Law School, O'Connor practiced law in Boston for several years before moving to New York to become an associate of Franklin Roosevelt's in the practice of corporate law. Though asked to join the Roosevelt administration in 1932, he chose to remain in private practice and to work with the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, a private center for polio victims that he and Roosevelt founded when the president contracted the disease in 1921. World War II was at its peak when Roosevelt asked O'Connor, then also the head of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, to assume the Chairmanship of the Red Cross. O'Connor took over the administration of a worldwide program of service to the armed forces involving millions of volunteers and thousands of workers overseas. After the war, he oversaw the inauguration of the civilian National Blood Program and the major restructuring of the American Red Cross that resulted in the replacement of the Central Committee by a Board of Governors. Following his Red Cross service, the vital but sometimes abrasive O'Connor continued to promote public health, most significantly by supporting the development of polio vaccines by Drs. Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin.
Gen. George Catlett Marshall (1880-1959) Uniontown, Pennsylvania President (1949-1950) Military. After a distinguished military career during which he rose to the rank of General of the Army during World War II, Marshall dedicated his life to the causes of international peace and security. After the war, President Harry Truman sent him to China in an effort to resolve the conflict between Communists and Nationalists. As Secretary of State (1947-49), he developed the renowned Marshall Plan that helped Western Europe recover from the war. He was also instrumental in establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He used the force of his personal prestige to increase the visibility of the Red Cross during his short tenure as its President, lending his personal support to the blood program and travelling extensively around the country visiting Red Cross chapters. He resigned from the Red Cross in 1950 soon after the beginning of the Korean War when President Truman named him Secretary of Defense. As Secretary, he engineered the formation of the international force under the United Nations that turned back the North Korean invasion of South Korea. In 1953 Marshall received the Nobel Prize for Peace.
E. Roland Harriman (1895-1978) New York City President (1950-1953) and Chairman (1954-1973) Banker. A lifelong partner in a private banking firm in New York City, Harriman also helped found the U.S. Trotting Association in 1938 and for 20 years was chairman of the Board of Directors of the Union Pacific Railroad. Under his sturdy and gentlemanly leadership, the Red Cross developed the largest blood bank system in the world. He also helped to initiate a fundraising partnership with what became the United Way. Harriman increased volunteer involvement in the organization while at the same time doing away with individual Red Cross volunteer services and corps, some of which had been in existence since before World War I. Under Harriman's leadership, there was to be "only one kind of volunteer, a Red Cross volunteer." On his recommendation, the Board of Governors changed his title, as principal officer, to Chairman in 1953 and elected a full-time, salaried, chief executive officer with the title of President. Feeling strongly that the Red Cross, by its very nature, must always be headed by a volunteer, Harriman served without pay, as have all Chairmen after him.
Ellsworth Bunker (1894-1984) Yonkers, New York President (1954-1956) Diplomat. Bunker spent the early years of his professional life with the National Sugar Refining Company that his father had helped found. A lengthy and distinguished diplomatic career followed. It included ambassadorships to Argentina, Italy, India, the Organization of American States, and South Vietnam (from escalation of the war through the U.S. withdrawal, 1967-73). With a cool exterior (he was called "The Icebox" by the Vietnamese) and a highly efficient and respected executive style, he guided the Red Cross as its first salaried President under the new 1953 corporate structure through organizational downsizing and adjustment following the Korean War, two unusually severe, back-to-back hurricane seasons, and the administration of relief to civilian victims of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Over some objections, he fostered participation of the Red Cross in federated fundraising under the system that became known as the United Way. Despite the intensity of the Cold War, he was able to establish an effective relationship with the Soviet Red Cross during a personal visit to the USSR in 1956. Always inclined to perceive the Red Cross within a world framework, Bunker continued to advise the organization after he resigned as president to resume his diplomatic career.
Gen. Alfred M. Gruenther (1899-1983) Platte Center, Nebraska President (1957-1964) Military. Graduating from West Point in 1918, Gruenther served in a variety of peacetime military positions. During World War II he was Deputy Chief of Staff under General Dwight Eisenhower and Chief of Staff under General Mark Clark. After the war he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Supreme Headquarters of Allied Powers in Europe in 1951 and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe two years later. As Red Cross President, the stern and highly organized Gruenther dedicated much of his time to the improvement and expansion of the organization's blood and youth programs. He also traveled widely for the American Red Cross and was active internationally, as a member of the Executive Committee of the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Standing Commission of the Red Cross Movement.
Gen. James F. Collins (1905-1989) New York City President (1964-1970) Military. A graduate of West Point, Collins attained the rank of Brigadier General in World War II. Later he served as deputy to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Personnel during the mobilization of armed forces in Korea. In 1961, as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Army in the Pacific he was promoted by President John F. Kennedy to four-star general. He retired after 37 years of military service and one month later was appointed President of the American Red Cross. His warm and abiding interest in people led him to establish close links to Red Cross chapters and to undertake an active part in international activities of the Red Cross Movement.
George McKee Elsey (1918- ) Palo Alto, California President (1970-1982) Government service. Elsey was a Naval Reserve officer assigned to President Roosevelt's Map Room, the White House intelligence and communications center during World War II. After the war, he joined President Truman's personal staff. In 1953 he came to the Red Cross to serve Presidents Bunker and Gruenther as executive assistant and then as Vice President in charge of the organization's nursing, safety, and international programs. After a period in the private sector, during which he was an active chapter volunteer, he became President of the American Red Cross. During his tenure income increased fourfold. As the conflict in Vietnam was ending in 1973, Elsey refocused the American Red Cross on helping people avoid, prepare for, and cope with emergencies. He put renewed emphasis on health and safety education and replaced cumbersome case-by-case procedures for immediate disaster relief assistance with standardized ones. Under his leadership, blood services became fiscally self-supporting and tissue banking began. Elsey instituted corporate long-range planning and resumed independent Red Cross fundraising to cope with the severe inflation of the 1970s. At the time of his retirement, the tall and scholarly Elsey was elected American Red Cross President Emeritus. Today he serves as a consultant on a wide range of issues.
Frank Stanton, Ph.D. (1908-2006) Muskegon, Michigan Chairman (1973-1979) Broadcaster. After completing his doctoral on audience research, Dr. Stanton went to work with the Columbia Broadcasting System where he quickly rose to become president and chief operating officer in 1946. Among other successes, he is credited for having brought about the 1960 presidential debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Having volunteered with the Red Cross in the areas of public information and fundraising for many years, he was appointed Chairman of the organization by President Nixon following his retirement from CBS. His was a strong, decisive, hands-on approach to American Red Cross activities that included increasing the organization's participation on the international Red Cross scene and reinvigorating the Board of Governors' involvement in Red Cross affairs. Along with President Elsey, Stanton strongly supported membership of the Israeli Red Cross equivalent, Magen David Adom, in the International Red Cross Movement.
Jerome (Brud) H. Holland, Ph.D. (1916-1985) Auburn, New York Chairman (1979-1985) Educator. An outstanding scholar and All-American football star at Cornell University, Holland had a distinguished professional career that spanned college teaching and administration, research, diplomatic service, and business. He served as president of Hampton Institute and Delaware State College. He was a member of the Board of Directors of many major organizations, among them AT&T, Chrysler, and the New York Stock Exchange. In 1964, he became a member of the American Red Cross Board of Governors, resigning in 1970 to accept the position of U.S. ambassador to Sweden. Three years later he was re-elected to the Board and became the first African-American Chairman of the American Red Cross in 1979. With a warm and dignified personality, he was especially effective in building close ties with other Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.
Richard F. Schubert (1937- ) Trenton, New Jersey President (1983-1989) Lawyer and businessman. Schubert began his professional career as an attorney for Bethlehem Steel in 1961. In 1970, he was appointed Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of Labor and the following year was appointed Solicitor of the Department of Labor by President Richard Nixon. In 1973, he became Under Secretary of Labor. Two years later he returned to Bethlehem Steel, eventually becoming president and, later, vice chairman. Following his retirement in 1982, he became President of the American Red Cross at a time when the organization was threatened with a potential fiscal crisis. Gaining a reputation as a tough but fair president with a strong business orientation, he reorganized national headquarters, promoted improved staff performance, introduced strategic planning to help guide the organization into the future, and led the Red Cross into the computer age. During his tenure, the Red Cross also began a major AIDS public education initiative, built the Holland Laboratory for Biomedical Sciences in Maryland, and diversified the sources of its funding support.
George F. Moody (1930-2005) Riverside, California Chairman (1985-1992) Businessman. For nearly 40 years Moody was associated with the California investment firm, Security Pacific Corporation, beginning in the credit and operations departments and rising through the ranks to become president in 1981. During Moody's tenure as chairman, the Red Cross addressed the AIDS epidemic and undertook the Blood Transformation initiative, a major modernization of its blood handling system. Moody guided the largest disaster fundraising campaign undertaken up to that time in response to the huge costs of the twin 1989 disasters, Hurricane Hugo in the Caribbean and along the Atlantic seacoast and the Loma Prieta earthquake in California.
Elizabeth H. Dole (1936- ) Salisbury, North Carolina President (1991-1999) Public servant. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Dole began a distinguished government career under five presidents. Known as a charming perfectionist, her first position was in the White House office of Consumer Affairs in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. In 1971, she entered Richard Nixon's administration as Deputy Assistant to the President for Consumer Affairs and from 1974-1979 she was a member of the Federal Trade Commission under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. In 1983, during Ronald Reagan's administration, she became the first woman to hold the office of Secretary of Transportation. In 1989, she became George Bush's Secretary of Labor. As President of the American Red Cross, she undertook a massive transformation of the organization's Biomedical Services to ensure the safety of its blood supply. She greatly increased financial support for the organization from the corporate world. This allowed the Red Cross, among other things, to expand its Disaster Services Human Resources system, a network of trained disaster relief workers around the country. Wife of the former Senate Majority Leader and presidential candidate Robert Dole, she retired from the Red Cross to explore a presidential bid herself.
Norman R. Augustine (1935- ) Denver, Colorado Chairman (1992-2001) Aeronautical engineer. Augustine occupied engineering, management, and executive positions in the aerospace industry with Douglas Aircraft, LTV Missiles and Space, and Martin Marietta (later Lockheed Martin) where he has served as chairman and CEO. In the public sector, he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and as Assistant Secretary and Undersecretary of the Army. He was also president of the Boy Scouts of America, chairman of the National Academy of Engineering and the NASA/White House Committee on the U.S. Space Program, and a professor of aeronautical engineering at Princeton University. Under his strong but low-key leadership, the Red Cross implemented the Blood Transformation program and revitalized Disaster Services.
Bernadine P. Healy, M.D. (1944- ) New York City President (1999-2001) Physician, educator, public servant. A graduate of the Harvard Medical School and a cardiologist, Dr. Healy served as a Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hospital. She joined the Reagan administration in 1984 as the Deputy Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. She then moved to Cleveland to serve as director of the Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Dr. Healy served as a member of the Presidential Scientific Advisory Committees for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, and in 1991 President Bush appointed her as the first woman Director of the National Institutes of Health. Prior to her appointment as President of the American Red Cross, she was Dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Ohio State University. She also served as medical consultant for CBS News and was a regular commentator on medicine, health, and public safety.
David T. McLaughlin (1932-2004) Grand Rapids, Michigan Chairman (2001-2004) Businessman and Educator. Prior to his appointment as chairman, Mr. McLaughlin served on the Red Cross Board of Governors and headed several of its committees. A graduate of Dartmouth College and its School of Business Administration, he served for six years as president of his alma mater. He led a number of manufacturing companies, including Orion Safety Products, the Toro Company, and Champion International. He served as chair and on the board of numerous other organizations, such as CBS (now Viacom), Atlas Air, Infinity Broadcasting, ARCO, and the Chase Manhattan Bank. For 10 years he was chairman, then president, and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.
Marsha (Marty) Johnson Evans (1947- ) Springfield, Illinois President and CEO (2002-2005) Military leader and public servant. Distinguished in the Navy, Evans attained the rank of rear admiral before retiring in 1998, making her one of only a few women to achieve this title in the Navy's history. Among many notable leadership roles was Evans' appointment as chief of staff of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. In January 1998, Evans assumed the top staff position at the Girl Scouts. As President of the American Red Cross, she worked to expand its programs and services in diverse communities, and led the charge to educate the public about disaster preparedness through the Together We Prepare initiative.
Bonnie McElveen-Hunter (1950- ) Columbia, South Carolina Chairman (2004- ) Businesswoman, diplomat and philanthropist. Bonnie McElveen-Hunter is one of the nation's most successful entrepreneurs as founder and CEO of Pace Communications, Inc., the largest custom publishing company in the country serving an array of Fortune 500 companies and ranked by Working Woman Magazine as one of the top 175 women-owned businesses in America. From 2001-2003, McElveen-Hunter served as U.S. Ambassador to Finland, during which time the President of Finland awarded her the Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion for humanitarian work involving the advancement of entrepreneurship, child protection and health initiatives. McElveen-Hunter is a leader in charitable causes and organizations, giving generously of her time and resources. She has served as a member of the International Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity, chaired the Alexis de Tocqueville Society and served on the United Way of America Board as a member of its National Leadership Council. She is a founder of the United Way Billion Dollar National Women's Leadership Initiative. A graduate of Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, McElveen-Hunter resides in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Mark W. Everson (1954- ) Yonkers, New York President and CEO (May 29, 2007- November 27, 2007) Public servant, businessman. A native of New York, Mr. Everson began his career as a CPA with Arthur Andersen & Co. in New York. Prior to coming to the American Red Cross, he served as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, presiding over the nation's tax administration system. He received his bachelor of arts in history from Yale University and has a masters of science in accounting from the New York University Business School.

For more information, see:

Foster Rhea Dulles, The American Red Cross. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1950. A general history of the ARC from its beginnings to mid-century. Out of print but in many libraries.

Patrick F. Gilbo, The American Red Cross: The First Century. New York: Harper and Row, 1981. An illustrated history of the first century of the ARC, 1881-1981. Also out of print but available in many libraries.

American Red Cross Museum website: http://www.redcross.org/museum

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