Gloss joins as Program Associate, focused on Conservation;
Lugares is the Foundation’s new Program Coordinator
PITTSBURGH – (April 24, 2025) – The Richard King Mellon Foundation has welcomed two new employees. Lance Gloss has joined the Foundation as Program Associate, focused on the Foundation’s national Conservation program. And Maria Lugares has joined the Foundation as Program Coordinator, supporting the Foundation’s operations.
Gloss comes to the Foundation from a longtime partner organization, The Conservation Fund, where he served as Program Manager for Activating the Natural Resource Economy. Gloss previously served as a Senior City Planner for the City of Grand Junction, Colorado. He also was a Graduate Fellow at the NC IDEA Foundation. Gloss earned a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from Brown University.
Lugares is a 2024 graduate of Ohio University, where she majored in Health Services Administration and minored in Business Administration. As program coordinator, her duties include overseeing Foundation convenings and assisting with project management.
“We are delighted to welcome Lance and Maria to the Foundation team,” said Foundation Director Sam Reiman. “Maria will play an important role in supporting and enhancing our operations, and helping us to welcome our grantees when they join us at our new offices in The Auction House. And Lance will help to advance the work of the Foundation’s national Conservation program, through which we have helped to conserve more than 4.5 million acres of environmentally precious landscapes and habitats in all 50 states. Lance’s expertise in the sustainable activation of rural communities in and near those landscapes and habitats will be particularly valuable.”
Gloss and Lugares join the Foundation following the recent retirements of two longtime Foundation employees: Senior Program Officer Brian J. Hill, who helped to lead the Foundation’s national Conservation program for more than 16 years, and Receptionist and Secretary Candace Jiles, who worked at the Foundation for 29 years.
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About the Richard King Mellon Foundation: Founded in 1947, the Richard King Mellon Foundation is the largest foundation in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and one of the 50 largest in the world. The Foundation’s 2023 year-end net assets were $2.9 billion, and its Trustees in 2023 disbursed more than $176 million in grants and program-related investments. The Foundation focuses its funding on six primary program areas, delineated in its 2021-2030 Strategic Plan.