Dr. Alandra L. Washington

Alandra Washington has more than 25 years of experience in nonprofit and philanthropic leadership. She is a transformational, result-driven leader who drives positive outcomes to improve equitable outcomes for children, families and communities at one of the top five philanthropic institutions. She brings deep expertise across operations and strategic planning, catalyzing effective strategies for innovation and executing enterprise-wide transformation. As a member of the executive leadership team, she manages an $8.5 billion endowment, including $100 million portfolio across programming and operations.

Alandra has extensive experience in organizational and program development, business process redesign, change management, and operational excellence strategies that shift culture in support of the organizational mission, vision and values. She has a demonstrated record of leading large-scale equitable change within organizations and communities through leadership roles at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Greater East St. Louis Community Fund and the New Spirit Neighborhood Organizing Office.

Currently, Alandra serves as chief transformation and organizational effectiveness officer for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where she provides leadership across board relations, technology, change management, organizational design, grants and contracts, facilities operations, annual planning and programmatic grantmaking initiatives. She also leads internal and external strategies to advance racial equity and community engagement initiatives.

Prior to her current role, Alandra served as vice president for transformation and organizational effectiveness, where she established a new department focused on strengthening discipline and culture to deepen transformation and operational excellence efforts. During her tenure, she also held the roles of director of programs and program officer.

Before joining the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 2002, Alandra served as chief executive officer of the Greater East St. Louis Community Fund. In this role, she managed a $15 million fund and provided leadership to advance the organization’s mission of moving residents out of poverty and fostering generational wealth through investments in community and economic development, education, environmental justice, leadership and community engagement. She previously served as executive director of the New Spirit Neighborhood Organizing Office of East St. Louis, partnering with community leaders to support the equitable rebuilding of neighborhoods with a focus on long-term stability and growth.

Alandra has served on numerous boards, holding roles as board chair and as a member of investment, programming and fund development committees. She currently serves as governance chair for the Schott Foundation for Public Education. She also serves as a board of director for the California Council for Excellence and serves on the board for Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. She has also been honored for her philanthropic leadership by Asian Americans in Philanthropy and is a 2019-2020 Baldrige Executive Fellow.

Alandra earned a bachelor’s in business administration and a Master of Public Administration from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. She also received a doctorate in educational leadership from Western Michigan University.