Marguerite Casey Foundation Announces New CEO & President

SEATTLE, Oct. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Marguerite Casey Foundation is pleased to announce Carmen Rojas, Ph.D. will join the Foundation as its next President and CEO. Dr. Rojas currently serves on the Foundation's Board of Directors and will transition into her new role on June 1, 2020.

"I am excited to announce Dr. Carmen Rojas as the next president and CEO at Marguerite Casey Foundation," said Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, Chair of the Foundation's Board of Directors. "Carmen exemplifies our mission to support grassroots activism that builds the power and voice of families to advocate for a more just and equitable society."

"Carmen has a deep commitment to equity and a wealth of personal and professional experience," said Melody Barnes, Board Chair-elect and member of the CEO Search Committee. "She's an innovator with a track-record of collaborating with workers, companies and philanthropists to improve the lives of low-wage employees. Combined with her extensive knowledge of the Foundation and roots in the Latinx community, Carmen is the ideal person to take the helm as the Foundation turns to its next chapter."

Dr. Rojas will join the Foundation from The Workers Lab, which she founded in 2014. Under her leadership, The Workers Lab has become the nation's leading supporter of new ideas about increasing worker power in the United States. Dr. Rojas will leave the organization after growing the budget 500 percent and building a team that is majority queer first-generation people of color.

Prior to starting The Workers Lab, Dr. Rojas was Acting Director of Collective Impact at Living Cities. She focused on improving economic opportunity for low-income people by supporting projects in economic and workforce development, energy efficiency, and asset building. From 2008 to 2011, Dr. Rojas was the Director of Strategic Grant-making at the Mitchell Kapor Foundation, where she oversaw the foundation's Green Access and Civic Engagement programs. Dr. Rojas also taught in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley. She holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a Fulbright Scholar in 2007.

"Marguerite Casey has a long history of supporting low-income families in lifting their voices and helping entire communities realize their visions for a more just society," said Dr. Rojas. "This opportunity is truly a gift and I look forward to working with our board, staff, and grantees to further strengthen this important tradition for low-income families and the organizations who serve them."

About Marguerite Casey Foundation

Marguerite Casey Foundation has nurtured a movement led by low-income families advocating for change by providing substantial long-term grants that cross issues, regions, egos, politics, organizational turf, race and ethnicity. Through its multi-year general support grant-making, the Foundation stands in partnership with grantees to sow the seeds of change.

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