Sherece Y. West is the President of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation in Arkansas. Since 1974, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation has supported programs and organizations that improve the quality of life for all Arkansans and that promote systemic change.
From the Foundation website:
Sherece is nationally known for her leadership in the areas of community development, public policy, and, most recently, disaster recovery. Sherece’s career path began at the Social Security Administration and wound its way through the Maryland Municipal League, the DC Department of Public Health, the Community Service Society of New York City, the Ford Foundation, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. At Casey, Sherece partnered with its Rebuilding Communities Initiative grantees and consultants to help the five RCI sites advance their community-building plans and achieve their goals. Her other grant making areas included housing, community development, race, culture and power and managing the foundation’s investments in youth mobilization, engagement, and leadership.
It was her work at Casey that led the Carrier Foundation to invite Sherece to be its first President & CEO. The Carrier Foundation is dedicated to improving the life chances of disadvantaged children and families in the southwest region of Louisiana. Shortly after arriving there, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck, and after just two months on the job, Sherece was asked to help lead the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, first as a loaned executive and subsequently as its Chief Executive Officer. LDRF is committed to promoting equity and inclusion as communities build back in Louisiana, a mission that dovetails with the WRF vision of Arkansas as a state where economic, racial, and social justice is universally valued and practiced.
Sherece holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; a Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; and a Bachelor of Arts from Bowie State University. She was a Fellow with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Policy Institutes and a 2003–04 Emerging Leaders Fellow – a joint program of Duke University and the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
Sherece is passionate about helping others, addressing the issues related to poverty, race and social justice; education; and community development. In addition to heading WRF, she currently serves on the boards of the Council on Foundations, Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and the National Urban Fellows. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Arkansas Little Rock. Sherece was a 2007 Telly Award Bronze Winner for her work as Executive Producer of Power in the People, a graduate of Leadership Arkansas Class II for 2007-08, and a current member of the Rotary Club of Little Rock and the Arkansas Women’s Leadership Forum. She was named to the Arkansas Business Journal Top 180 Power List in 2008 and 2009.
See also: Sherece’s 2006 interview with Foundation News
Photo credit: Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation
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