BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Oct. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) announces the election of Christina Hanger, of Plano, Texas, as a new member of its board of trustees. She will join the board in October, bringing the number of WKKF trustees to nine.
After 30 years in the private sector, Hanger’s social venture work and volunteering led her to the helm of Dallas Afterschool. As CEO she has been able to apply her corporate skills for the benefit of children’s education in her community, a long-held interest. Under Hanger’s leadership, the nonprofit increased the number of certified, high quality afterschool programs from four to 42 over five years, developed a summer literacy program and created effective partnerships between the public and private sectors to double municipal afterschool funding for low-income students. In 2018, Hanger was selected as the Dallas/Fort Worth Nonprofit CEO of the Year by the Center for Nonprofit Management.
“In our search for an addition to the Kellogg Foundation’s board of trustees, we were looking for an individual with multi-faceted organizational experience, keen strategic thinking and a deep commitment to children,” said Rick Tsoumas, WKKF board chair. “Christina’s extensive experience with global technology companies connects essential systems thinking with the execution challenges of community-serving organizations. We look forward to Christina bringing this perspective to her board service as we pursue Mr. Kellogg’s legacy on behalf of children.”
In her career, Hanger has held a number of executive leadership and consulting roles for strategic and operational issues in fields spanning engineering, manufacturing, venture capital and the nonprofit sector. From 2007 to 2010, she was the chief operations officer and chief financial officer of Worksoft, Inc. Previously, she held vice president and senior vice president positions at Hewlett-Packard, Compaq Computer Corporation, and was the director of manufacturing for the IBM Corporation.
Hanger received her master’s degree in business administration from Wake Forest University, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. In addition to her extensive volunteer leadership and advisory committees, her previous board experience includes the Houston Minority Business Council, the American Red Cross-Houston Chapter and Social Venture Partners Dallas.
“We are looking forward to welcoming Christina Hanger to our board of trustees,” said La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the Kellogg Foundation. “Christina has experience working within the community context to widen educational opportunities and ensure that all children thrive. As our founder wrote: ‘Education offers the greatest opportunity for really improving one generation over another.’ Christina shares our commitment to this value and will bring a distinctive lens to our ongoing discussions about how best to build healthy, hopeful futures for our children.”
Other W.K. Kellogg Foundation board members include: Milton Chen of San Francisco, California; Celeste A. Clark of Battle Creek, Michigan; Roderick D. Gillum of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; Khan Nedd of Grand Rapids, Michigan; Cathann Kress of Columbus, Ohio; Ramón Murguía of Kansas City, Kansas; President and CEO La June Montgomery Tabron of Battle Creek, Michigan; and Board Chair Richard M. Tsoumas of Battle Creek, Michigan.
Boardspan, Inc., advised the Kellogg Foundation in the appointment of Hanger.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal innovator and entrepreneur 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, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special attention 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. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org
SOURCE W.K. Kellogg Foundation