Hilary Pennington

Hilary Pennington is Ford Foundation’s former executive vice president of programs (2018-2024) where she oversaw all of the foundation’s programs globally, working closely across programs and offices to ensure strategic, meaningful, and well-aligned global grant making. She also oversaw the foundation’s BUILD program, and the Office of Strategy and Learning. Before assuming that role, she served as the foundation’s vice president for Education, Creativity, and Free Expression (2013-2018).

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 a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and president and CEO of Jobs for the Future, a research and policy development organization she co-founded. In 22 years with JFF, Hilary helped the organization become one of the most influential in the country on issues of education, youth transitions, workforce development, and future work requirements. She also served on President Bill Clinton’s transition team and as co-chair of his administration’s presidential advisory committee on technology.

Hilary serves on the boards of Bard College, Search for Common Ground and Lego Foundation, and she is a member of the Trinity Church Vestry and the Council on Foreign Relations. 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. In 2000, she was a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She is the Co-Convenor of the Global Initiative on Polarization and a member of the IFIT International Advisory Council.