Board Chair, Co-Impact, former Executive VP of Global Programs, Ford Foundation
Hilary Pennington serves as the Chair of the Board of Co-Impact, a collaborative fund working to advance gender equity and opportunity for women and girls in the global south. Previously, she served for 11 years at the Ford Foundation, as the foundation’s executive vice president for global programs. She oversaw all of Ford’s programs globally, including the foundation’s BUILD program and the Office of Strategy and Learning. Prior to that role, she was the foundation’s vice president for Education, Creativity, and Free Expression.
Between 2006 and 2012, Hilary served as director of education, postsecondary success, and special initiatives at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where she guided grant programs across the country and worldwide. Before joining Gates, she was president and CEO of Jobs for the Future, a research and policy development organization she co-founded and led for 22 years. She also served on President Bill Clinton’s transition team and as co-chair of his administration’s presidential advisory committee on technology.
In addition to Co-Impact, Hilary sits on the boards of the Lego Foundation, Search for Common Ground, and Bard College and on the advisory board of the Institute for Integrated Transitions. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Management and Yale College, and she holds a graduate degree in social anthropology from Oxford University and a master’s degree in theological studies from the Episcopal Divinity School. She has been a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
