The Salisbury House Foundation announced that J. Eric Smith will be the organization’s new executive director and Cyndi Pederson will be the deputy executive director.

Smith has more than 26 years of leadership experience in the nonprofit and government sectors in New York, Massachusetts, Idaho and Washington, D.C.

Pederson was most recently the director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as the chief of staff to Christie Vilsack, serving on the governor’s Senior Management team and the governor’s transition team.