Board of Directors

Officers for 2024 - 2025

Nikki (Ethridge) Jones

President

Nikki M. Jones, Board President, is a people and culture executive leader with over 29 years of professional business experience with the last 14 spent in the not-for-profit sector. She currently serves as the Chief People and DE&I Officer at the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) where she develops and drives the people and culture strategy for the professional staff and oversees the implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion principles for the association. The association's vision is to achieve gender equality and be the global leader in advancing women into positions of influence and decision-making in healthcare to improve health equity and outcomes. 

Nikki joined the HBA in 2009 and has since held executive leadership roles spanning finance, marketing, communications, technology and most recently. people operations. Prior to her not-for-profit experience at HBA, Nikki held finance management roles at Johnson & Johnson supporting the consumer care business and the former healthcare business of Prudential in the accounting and finance area. She is a graduate of Elizabeth City State University (HBCU) with a degree in accounting and is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) where she earned the Certified HR Professional designation (SHRM-CP) and is currently pursuing the Certified Diversity Executive (CDE) designation through The Institute for Diversity Certification. 

Outside of her professional work with HBA, Nikki partners in life with her husband of over 23 years, Rev. Dr. Christopher Michael Jones, and enjoys watching her two college students and one high schooler mature and chart their own paths through life. She loves dancing, singing, and living out her calling and passion to inspire others for positive impact by serving in various volunteer leadership roles in her church's women's ministry and the greater community. She is also an active 30+ year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. 

Laila Wilson-McCoy

Vice President

Laila Wilson-McCoy, Vice President/Mission Committee Co-Chair, is an experienced professional in various development and administrative operations roles and is skilled in donor relations, fundraising, and process management. Prior to becoming the Manager of Organizational Initiatives and Planning at Centurion Inc., Laila was the Resource Development Manager at Isles, Inc., and the Development Director at the Waldorf School of Princeton. 

Prior to Laila working in the nonprofit industry, she spent over a decade overseeing the US, Puerto Rico, and Mexico fleet operations at C. R. Bard, Inc., a global pharmaceutical medical device manufacturer. During that time, she also held the position of co-chair of the Bard Volunteer Council, organizing employees to achieve annual fundraising goals and volunteer events for various established non-profit and local organizations. 

In her spare time, Laila is a review committee member for Cooperman College Scholars and the VP at Shareef Professional Services, where she helps local nonprofits with their fundraising needs. She is the mother of two children, Brie, who resides in NY, and Rell, who is currently in high school. 

She earned her BA in psychology at Thomas Edison State University. 

Leena Shah

Treasurer

Leena Shah is a passionate and results driven pharmaceutical director with 15 years of global drug development expertise including scientific due diligence of pre-clinical to launch-ready business development opportunities and operational implementation of global Phase I to IV programs. She is currently the Executive Director of Oncology/Tumor Strategies for Bristol-Myers Squibb. Leena is recognized for leading and mobilizing large, highly engaged, collaborative, multidisciplinary, global teams that respectfully challenge each other’s conclusions to deliver high quality results. She also has a track record in project leadership, strategic thinking, project management, problem solving, line management, clinical operations, business and clinical development planning in multiple therapeutic areas. Her specialties include Business Development, Clinical Development, Clinical Operations, Project Management, Global Medical Affairs. 

Sheila Nall

Secretary

Sheila’s professional career in interior design and architecture spanned over 45 years, the past 21 years of which were as  Principal and Director of Interior Design at KSS Architects here in Princeton.  In that role, she managed  millions of square feet of corporate and higher education projects for clients including Disney, IBM and Princeton University.   Sheila counts her happy clients as her greatest success.   She also served on the board and as president of CREW New Jersey (Commercial Real Estate Women), an organization based upon the idea of women helping women in a traditionally male-dominated industry.

Now retired, she believes that the most important skills she brings to her role as a board member of the YWCA  are her abilities to work as a team and to listen to others, parlaying that information into workable solutions.  As a woman who built her career starting  in the 70’s, she experienced first hand  the importance of women helping women.  Joining the board of the YWCA gives her the opportunity to pay back those who helped guide her and to give back to the Princeton community she calls “home”.