Public Welfare Foundation Chooses New President

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of the Public Welfare Foundation announced today that Mary E. McClymont will serve as the Foundation's next president. Ms. McClymont is a highly respected foundation and non-profit executive who has worked in a variety of domestic and international fields.  

"We are delighted that Mary McClymont will lead the Public Welfare Foundation at this time," said Peter B. Edelman, chair of the Board of Directors. "We are confident that she has the right mix of experience, talent, and vision to sustain and enhance the Foundation's vital work."  

Ms. McClymont has served most recently as executive director of Global Rights, an international human rights organization that works together with local activists to promote and protect the rights of vulnerable populations, including women and racial and ethnic groups. She previously served as president and chief executive officer of InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.-based international development and humanitarian nongovernmental organizations.

She also previously held a number of executive positions with the Ford Foundation.  From 1988 to 2000, she started as program officer and concluded her tenure as senior director of the Peace and Social Justice Program. She subsequently returned from 2006 to 2008 to lead, as vice president, this global grantmaking division of the Foundation.  

Ms. McClymont's interest in global and domestic social justice issues has also been manifested through her work as the national director for legalization of the Migration and Refugee Services division of the United States Catholic Conference; as senior staff counsel for the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union; as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice; and as Assistant Director for Corrections at Georgetown University Law Center's National Street Law Institute.  

"I am very pleased to have the opportunity to lead a foundation whose mission includes trying to ensure fundamental rights for people in need and giving them fair chances to succeed," said Ms. McClymont. "I look forward to working with the Board and staff of the Public Welfare Foundation to continue – and to grow – its record of support for important social justice issues."

Ms. McClymont has an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from American University's Washington College of Law and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.  

The Public Welfare Foundation is a private foundation based in Washington, DC, with an endowment of about $450 million that distributes about $20 million each year in grants. The Foundation's current areas of focus are Criminal and Juvenile Justice and Workers' Rights.

For more information about the Foundation, please visit our website at www.publicwelfare.org.

SOURCE Public Welfare Foundation