Congratulations to WG Board Member Patrick Corvington on White House nomination

President Obama has announced his intention to nominate Patrick Corvington, a senior associate with the Annie E. Casey Foundation and a Washington Grantmakers board member, to be the chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Patrick joined the WG Board in 2006 and subsequently chaired our Ad Hoc Committee on Working Groups. His dedication, dynamic leadership, and good humor have been invaluable to this organization over the past three years. These traits, combined with unique skills and perspective that he has acquired on his life’s journey, make him an outstanding candidate to lead the nation’s largest grantmaker supporting service and volunteering, and to guide the implementation the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act of 2009. Washington Grantmakers applauds the selection.

From the Corporation for National and Community Service release:

Patrick Corvington is a recognized expert on non-profit sector leadership and capacity issues, new and emerging philanthropy, and volunteerism. He currently serves at the Annie E. Casey Foundation as a Senior Associate responsible for guiding the foundation’s grantees on issues related to leadership development, next generation leadership, and capacity building. He also acts as Senior Advisor to the Foundation’s Executive Vice President, Ralph Smith, who is the Chair of the Council on Foundations. As part of this work Corvington is engaged directly with some of the top social innovation intermediaries in the nonprofit sector and has co-authored publications such as Ready to Lead: Next Generation Leaders Speak Out and Next Shift: Beyond the Nonprofit Leadership Crisis. From 2003-2005, Corvington was Executive Director of Innovation Network, a non-profit agency whose mission is to build the evaluation capacity of the non-profit sector. Previously, he conducted policy researchin the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center at The Urban Institute,and also worked to build the capacity of nonprofit organizations abroad.

A native of Haiti, Mr. Corvington immigrated to the United States as a teenager. He worked his way through college, earning his B.A. in Sociology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and his M.A. in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University, where he received the National Minority Leadership Fellowship from the Kellogg Foundation. Corvington has devoted his life to serving and empowering communities, beginning his career traveling the East Coast migrant stream as a case manager working with migrant workers. He has also served as an advocate for adjudicated youth as Interim Director at the Sykesville Group Shelter Home andhas worked as a patient advocate in a community-based HIV/AIDS clinic;and has volunteered his timeworking in an infirmary of a shelter for homeless persons. He currently serves on the board of directors of Echoing Green, the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, and the advisory board of the American Humanics Nonprofit Workforce Coalition.

Harris Wofford, former U.S. Senator and former CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service:

“To fulfill the promise of the Kennedy Serve America Act, the Corporation needs Patrick Corvington now, so let’s join in urging Congress to put his confirmation on another fast track.”