The Ford Foundation has appointed four team members to the role of senior program officer.
Fred Frelow, in New York, has demonstrated remarkable leadership on the More and Better Learning Time initiative, using his grantmaking, convening, and thought-partnership skills to mobilize a broad range of state and local partners to implement MBLT, with exceptional outcomes in Chicago, Detroit and Rochester. At the national level, Frelow’s leadership of the foundation’s work with the USDOE Labor Management Conferences and the Teacher Union Reform Network has bridged one of the most difficult challenges in the field, and helped the administration establish a more respectful stance toward the leadership of the NEA and AFT. Frelow has also become a highly respected leader in education philanthropy in New York, working to build a community of grant makers who collaborate on school improvement issues at many different levels and with disparate players.
Alex Irwan, in the Jakarta office, has developed a highly innovative portfolio that promotes the creation of partnerships between government, communities and civil society organizations as a means for combating poverty in Indonesia. The program's proven success has led to its replication across the country. In addition, Irwan has been active at the global level, leading foundation efforts around the Open Governance Partnership and strengthening Indonesia's role in that multilateral effort. He has also recently launched a major foundation-wide effort to learn and exchange around the "resource curse," one of the most significant intractable challenges for natural resources governance in the global South.
Lourdes Rivera, in New York, is widely recognized as a leader in the field of SRHR and women’s rights more broadly. Early stage grantmaking laid the groundwork for what is now a robust set of women of color led groups leading new framing and strategies to ensure access to reproductive health and rights in the USA. Her expertise on health care law was widely tapped by grantees and colleague donors and led to early investments in groups that have worked over many years to ensure that SRHR issues were included in the Affordable Care Act. Globally, she has built a strong portfolio of global south groups working to shape international policy and agency programs.
Anna Wadia, in our New York office, has shown exceptional creativity in organizing grantees and other partners. Marshaling a range of approaches to change, she has played a major role in the policy victories on the minimum wage, paid sick leave, and other policies to upgrade work in America—some of the most important advances in economic justice in the very challenging political and economic climate of the past five years. Her grantees produced research, mobilized grassroots constituents and conducted a public education campaign in a successful effort to cover home workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. This victory will ensure that 1.8 million homecare workers receive minimum wage and overtime protections.