Christy Pichel has announced that she will retire after ten years as president of the San Francisco-based Stuart Foundation.
“While my commitment to the goals, values and direction of the Stuart Foundation is as strong as ever, I have made the personal decision to retire from the position of president,” Pichel said in a letter posted late last week on the foundation’s website.
Pichel joined the foundation in 2001 as director of finance, and was named president in 2003. Prior to joining the Stuart Foundation, she held senior management positions at the James Irvine Foundation, the Public Policy Institute of California.
Stuart is a major funder of efforts to improve the lives of California children involved in the child welfare system, particularly in regard to their academic progress. In her ten years, Pichel presided over the expenditure of $200 million in grants.
“It has been my good fortune to have been a part of the progress that has been made in these arenas,” Pichel said in her letter.
“Under her presidency we have continuously sharpened our focus for what is really important in program strategies,” said Board Chairman Dwight Stuart, Jr., in a statement announcing Pichel’s retirement.
The foundation has hired the firm Carlson Beck to lead the search for Pichel’s successor.
John Kelly is the editor-in-chief of the Chronicle of Social Change
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