The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has appointed seven local community leaders to its Columbia Community Advisory Committee.

Columbia’s appointed advisers are: J. Mac Bennett, president and CEO, United Way of the Midlands; James A. Bennett, executive vice president and director of public affairs, First Citizens Bank; John W. Folsom, president and CEO, Colliers Keenan Real Estate; Marjorie L. Gilbert, president and CEO, Central Carolina Community Foundation; Henry Haitz, publisher and president, The State; Barbara J. Hamilton; Joel A. Smith III, former dean, University of South Carolina Moore School of Business; and Inez Moore Tenenbaum.

“We appreciate the interest in Knight’s work demonstrated by this group of advisors,” said Susan Patterson, the foundation’s program director for Columbia.

Columbia is one of 26 U.S. cities and towns served by Knight Foundation, a $2.5 billion national foundation that focuses on journalism and communities and inspiring and enabling them to reach their highest potential.

Community Advisory Committee members are an integral part of Knight Foundation’s grant-making work.  Each committee is a small group of creative, connected and strategic advisers who work with Knight’s program directors to discover opportunities that produce maximum impact and lasting change in the communities they serve.

“The knowledge and ideas that these advisors share are invaluable,” said Patterson. “They provide wise counsel as we develop grants with the potential to transform the community.”

About Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of Columbia and 25 other communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation supports ideas and projects that create transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.