Teresa Heinz Kerry, The Philanthropist, Tries Tough Love - WSJ

(snip)

That brash, unconventional style makes Teresa Heinz Kerry, 65 years old, a wild card as the spouse of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The same traits that mark her hard-nosed philanthropy make campaign aides sweat when she approaches a podium: She is intense, curious, exacting and blunt.

(snip)

Mrs. Heinz Kerry, whose English is accented by the Portuguese she spoke as a child in Mozambique, is regarded as St. Teresa in Pittsburgh. There, Heinz money girds everything from neighborhood after-school programs to grand civic projects such as the new convention center. One of her dates with Sen. Kerry, whom she married in 1995, was at an after-school arts program, where the senator was dazzled by a state-of-the-art recording studio and photography lab.

(snip)

Every early-childhood program, public-television show and training initiative that has sought Heinz funding must show it is prepared to spend the money wisely. In 2002, the endowments, along with two other local groups, yanked $3 million in literacy funds from the Pittsburgh public school system, compelling Mayor Tom Murphy to create a commission to examine the district's problems and recommend solutions.

As Mrs. Heinz Kerry sees it, grant making should be held to the same standards as venture capital investments. "You're going to win some, and you're going to lose some," she says, "so you better have the best mechanisms in place to be accountable."

(snip)

One of Mrs. Heinz Kerry's basic principles is that charity doesn't have to mean cheap. At the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, an after-school arts center on Pittsburgh's North Side, Heinz money helped to build a recording studio where two Grammy-winning jazz albums have been produced, a gourmet teaching kitchen big enough for a hotel, and a hothouse for growing orchids.

(snip)

Write to Shailagh Murray at shailagh.murray@wsj.com

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108206739899284300,00.html

Is one of the hottest females on the planet. It comes from within, ya know.