2025 Keynote Speakers
carla thompson payton (she/her/hers)
Chief strategist & impact officer | W.K. Kellogg foundation
Carla Thompson Payton is chief strategist & impact officer for program strategy for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan. In this role, she supports the foundation’s efforts to promote thriving children, working families, and equitable communities.
Thompson Payton is one of the country’s foremost philanthropic leaders creating systemic change for children and families, promoting a more just economy, and advancing racial equity. As the chief strategist and impact officer for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, she leads the creative and strategic direction of the organization’s multi-billion dollar programming from design through implementation and evaluation. As a member of the executive team, she is also responsible for the overall strategic direction and leadership of the foundnation.
Prior to joining the foundation in 2012, Thompson Payton served for over a decade in local, state, and federal public service, ultimately as the deputy director of the Office of Child Care at the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There, she was responsible for developing national early childhood education policy, managing the $5 billion annual budget of the Child Care Development Fund and providing oversight to 10 regional officers serving states, tribes, and territories.
Previously, she was the inaugural assistant superintendent for early childhood education for the District of Columbia, where she led the first publicly funded pre-kindergarten program. Her efforts led to developing dynamic new learning opportunities for children and their educators and public-private partnerships.
In other professional experience, she has held positions with the Departments of Education and Public Welfare in Pennsylvania; United Way of Greater Philadelphia and southern New Jersey in Philadelphia; and the U.S. Department of Education.
Thompson Payton has been honored for her leadership in early childhood education by the Administration for Children and Families; the Children’s Defense Fund; and the Temple University Institute on Disabilities. Essence magazine named her one of the “50 Women Who Made Us Proud.”
She also serves on boards and committees for nonprofit associations and professional organizations. She wrote Black Girl Magic: C-Suite Leadership in Philanthropic Organizations and has been cited in numerous news media for her expertise. In addition, she is the author of three publications related to school readiness and advocacy.
She holds a significant passion for racial equity and promoting Black women’s success in executive-level leadership. Among the numerous special initiatives she has led at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, she helped to develop Racial Equity 2030, a $90 million global challenge focused on sparking innovation and eradicating racial inequities supporting communities across the globe in reimagining their future.
She holds a doctorate in education and organizational leadership and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania.
Kathy Reich (She/her/hers)
Director, Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) | Ford foundation
Kathy Reich is a leader, thinker, and writer on issues related to philanthropy and systems change. She recently completed eight years as the founding director of the Ford Foundation’s BUILD initiative, a 12-year, $2 billion effort to strengthen key institutions around the world that fight inequality. To date, the BUILD program has supported more than 500 organizations in 40 countries.
Before joining Ford in 2016, Kathy worked for 15 years at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in a number of different roles, including as organizational effectiveness and philanthropy director, where she led a cross-cutting program to help grantees around the world strengthen their strategy, leadership and impact. Prior to that, she served as a policy director of a non-profit, a legislative assistant for a United States Senator, and an aide to state and local elected officials in California.
Kathy has served on many nonprofit boards, and has advised philanthropic foundations around the world on how to advance systems change through grantmaking practices that emphasize flexibility, long-term commitments, institutional strengthening, and equitable partnerships between donors and grantee partners. Her work has been published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Alliance, among others She currently serves on the board of Repair the World and on advisory councils for the Center for Effective Philanthropy, the Shifting Systems Initiative, and TEN - Together Ending Need.
Kathy holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is a lifelong Californian who currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. She’s married and the proud mom of two phenomenal young adults, a cuddly white dog, and an extremely opinionated cat.