Sonja Plesset is Executive Director of the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation and The Plymouth Rock Assurance Foundation. She has over twenty years of experience in philanthropy, research and higher education. Previous roles include Chief Advancement Officer at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Whitehead Institute, Lecturer at Harvard University, and Program Manager at the Yale School of Forestry.
Sonja received her BA from Cornell University, and her PhD in cultural anthropology from Harvard University. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Public Health where she conducted research on eviction and health in a public housing community and is the author of Sheltering Women: Negotiating Gender and Violence in Northern Italy which was published in 2006 by Stanford University Press. Currently, she serves on the Advisory Boards of Thompson Island Outward Bound, Girls on the Run, and Youth Harbors. She also serves as an Advisor to the Museum of African American History (MAAH) Stone Book Prize.