ZimNotes

By Ann Lehman – Blogger, Governance, Training and Gender Specialist

Ann has written a monthly enews, ZimNotes, for over 35 years geared to the nonprofit community. You can subscribe for free at https://annlehman.substack.com/subscribe

You may also subscribe to her account on BlueSky @ZimNotes.bsky.social

About Ann

Ann W. Lehman, Publisher of ZimNotes, the e-newsletter, has worked in the public interest arena for many years as a lawyer, executive director, policy expert, and consultant. Ms. Lehman has authored Board Members Rule: How to Be a Strategic Advocate for your Nonprofit and Boards That Love Fundraising. At the start of her legal career, Ms. Lehman supervised a storefront public interest law center in Portland geared to senior citizens and was the executive director of the California Law Center on Long Term Care. San Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee honored Ann for 20 years of advocating for women and girls as the Gender Advisor for the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women. There, she spearheaded a private/public collaboration, the Gender Equality Principles Initiative (GEP), implementing CEDAW, a women’s international treaty, and created model practices developed with help from corporate and nonprofit partners such as Google, Levi Strauss & Co., Gap, Deloitte, Catalyst and the Center for Talent Leadership. Ann also worked with her late husband, Robert Zimmerman, at Zimmerman Lehman as a Board Governance expert for nonprofits.

Ms. Lehman is the editor of ZimNotes, the free nonprofit e-newsletter operating monthly for over 30 years of publication. She has taught workshops in such areas as board members’ roles and responsibilities, board and staff relations, strategic board member recruitment, advocacy, strategic planning, and leadership, as well as human rights, bias, gender analysis, and gender budgeting.

Ann has been living and involved with the Cohousing community for 15 years, as well as being on the National Board of the Cohousing Association of the United States. Cohousing is an intentional, collaborative neighborhood that combines private homes with shared indoor and outdoor spaces designed to support an active and democratic community life. See more about CoHousing at https://www.cohousing.org/.

Ms. Lehman holds a BA from Rutgers University, New Jersey, and a JD from Northwestern School of Law, Lewis and Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon.

Ms. Lehman is not currently employed nor actively seeking work, but she would not describe herself as retired.