Alandra Washington named Kellogg Foundation's first director of quality and organizational effectiveness

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Nov 21, 2013, 03:44 ET

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Nov. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced today that Alandra Washington, Ph.D., has been named the foundation's first director of quality and organizational effectiveness. She assumes her new role Dec. 2, 2013, and will report to La June Montgomery Tabron, currently executive vice president for operations and treasurer, and incoming president and CEO.

Tabron characterized the move as placing the foundation at the leading edge of a practice that is important and largely new for the philanthropic community.

"By evaluating and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations and programming practices, we're demonstrating our commitment to being a learning organization prepared to listen, look dispassionately at ourselves and act to improve," said Tabron.

"Alandra's knowledge of programming, coupled with her experience in day-to-day management and her organizational training and skills make her particularly well-suited to lead this effort," she added.

The position extends beyond evaluating the foundation's social impact or the effectiveness of its grantmaking. Washington's responsibilities will include ensuring integration and alignment of the wide range of functions that exist to support grantmaking including program services and customer service. The objective is to help the foundation focus its resources more effectively and efficiently on fulfilling its mission to create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success.

"Our commitment to having a culture of service is directly tied to our core value of helping people help themselves that is as important today as it was to our founder W.K. Kellogg," continued Tabron. "There is no question that this is values-driven work."

Washington comes to the new position from her role as director of Family Economic Security, one of the foundation's areas of strategic focus.

She joined the foundation in 2002 as a program officer building effective systems within the foundation's Philanthropy and Volunteerism practice. While that practice no longer exists, her new role allows her to expand on and implement ideas developed in that earlier position.

"In a pure business sense, our value is measured by the value we offer to all of our stakeholders, including grantees, employees and the communities in which we work," said Washington.

"The foundation's mission is ultimately about transformation. If we're delivering value as we fulfill our mission, then every engagement with us should make someone's job a little easier."

Prior to joining the Kellogg Foundation, Washington was president and CEO of the Greater East St. Louis Community Fund. She earned a bachelor's degree in business administration with a concentration in organizational theory and design and a master's degree in public administration with a concentration in nonprofit leadership and management, both from Southern Illinois University. She holds a doctorate in educational leadership and organizational analysis from Western Michigan University.

Washington is a board member of the Association of Black Foundation Executives and Women's Funding Network.

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. Learn more at www.wkkf.org.

SOURCE W.K. Kellogg Foundation