W.K. Kellogg Foundation names Carla D. Thompson as Vice President for Program Strategy

W.K. Kellogg Foundation names Carla D. Thompson as Vice President for Program Strategy

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – Carla D. Thompson, since 2010 deputy director of the Office of Child Care in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will join the W.K. Kellogg Foundation June 11 as vice president for program strategy.

In her new position, Ms. Thompson will be responsible for managing the foundation’s work with communities and grantees nationwide in the program areas of Education & Learning and Family Economic Security. In 2010-11, those program areas made 177 grants totaling about $130 million to help the foundation achieve its three organizational goals of educated kids, healthy kids and secure families.

“Carla Thompson has an exceptional background that prepares her for a key leadership role at the Kellogg Foundation. She is an innovative thinker in early childhood education and brings a strong record as a manager both in government and in philanthropy,” said Sterling Speirn, president and chief executive officer.

Thompson, 37, has a dual background in education and social work and has earned a reputation as a strong and effective advocate for early child care and education, for better after-school programs and for support of low-income families.

“I am thrilled to have the chance to join the Kellogg Foundation and its grantees. Over the past decade, I have worked to improve educational outcomes for the nation’s most vulnerable children and their families. In my new role, I’m looking forward working with my colleagues to ensure that the communities we serve supports their members to achieve their full potential in life,” Thompson said.

In her current position, she is responsible for overseeing the national implementation of the Child Care Development Fund by managing 10 regional offices. The fund supports 1.7 million children monthly and distributes more than $5 billion annually.

Prior to joining the Office of Child Care, she served as Assistant Superintendent for Early Childhood Education for the District of Columbia public schools, where she managed all aspects of the system’s early childhood education program. Her professional experience in Early Childhood Education began in 2004 with United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, where she managed fund development and parenting and public engagement programs for United Way’s “Early to Learn” partnership.

In 2005, she became a special assistant in the Pennsylvania Departments of Education and Public Welfare, where she helped shape and launch a new statewide early childhood education program.

Thompson holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Syracuse University, a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania and expects to receive her doctorate from Penn in 2013.

After graduating from college, she worked as a social worker for the Children’s Hope Foundation in New York City and at the Center for the Study of Youth Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2000 and 2001, she was a presidential management intern in Washington, D.C., working with the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services.

“Our mission at the foundation is to strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success and we are committed to helping change the social dynamics that hold too many of them back. Carla will help communities marshal their resources to assure that all children have an equitable and promising future,” Speirn said.

About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life. 

The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Mich., and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti.