Adina Applebaum

Program Officer

Adina Applebaum is a Program Officer for the Whiting Awards and manages the Foundation's social media. Previously, she was the Development Manager at the Center for Fiction and a Program Associate at the Foundation. She is a graduate of Barnard College.

Constantia Constantinou

Executive Director

Constantia Constantinou is the Executive Director of the Whiting Foundation. She develops and implements the strategy and vision for the Foundation as a grant funding organization in support of Literature, the Humanities, and Cultural Heritage Preservation. She oversees and maintains multiple high-quality grant programs and administers all aspects of the Foundation's organizational management. Constantinou’s expertise spans various academic leadership roles in higher education. With a career marked by innovation and strategic vision, she has spearheaded digital, multimedia, and technology initiatives in various institutions, driving impactful strategies to enhance learning, engagement, fundraising, and community partnerships. Her dedication to literature, the humanities, and cultural preservation culminated in the establishment of many institutional partnerships nationally and internationally. Constantia is a talented classical musician, holding advanced degrees in music and Library Science from Queens College. She is a distinguished professor at the State University of New York; a Fulbright Scholar and a Distinguished Alumna from the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College.

Ava Lehrer

Program Officer

Ava Lehrer is a Program Officer at the Whiting Foundation, where she supports its suite of grant programs in literature, the humanities, and cultural preservation. A passionate program strategist, she has guided educational initiatives at the Academy of American Poets and previously led the School Engagement division at 92NY, collaborating with prominent writers, artists, and cultural institutions. Earlier in her career, she worked closely with poet John Ashbery, managing archival projects and supporting international literary exchange. A graduate of NYC public schools, she holds an M.Ed. in General and Special Education from Touro University and a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Creative Writing, with a minor in Music, from Bard College. She is dedicated to fostering a love of literature and expanding equitable access to arts education.

Martin Tsang

Senior Program Officer

Prior to joining Whiting, Martin served as a Senior Program Officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities, where he led and advanced a wide range of initiatives supporting work across the humanities. He holds a PhD in cultural anthropology and has researched, taught, and published widely on Asian diasporas in the Caribbean as well as Afro Atlantic religious materiality and textuality. Martin also has a professional background in higher education, libraries, and archival practice. From 2015 to 2022 he was the Cuban Heritage Collection Librarian at the University of Miami, overseeing print and digital resources for the largest collection of materials on Cuba and its people located outside the island. During that time he also served as the inaugural Curator of Latin American Collections and taught and advised students in the Departments of Anthropology and Religious Studies. In his spare time he is an active bead artist who exhibits, curates, researches, writes, and teaches about beads and their craft.

Ruby Wang

Program Associate 

Ruby Wang supports the Foundation's programs and operations, with an emphasis on the Whiting Award, Literary Magazine Prize, and Creative Nonfiction Grant. Previously, she was the Associate Managing Editor at A Public Space. Ruby received her MA in English and American literature at New York University. Her work can be found in 128 LIT and Annulet: A Journal of Poetics. She lives in Brooklyn and is originally from Reno, NV.