Lori Villarosa

Lori Villarosa is the founder and executive director of the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE), which has had the mission of increasing the amount and effectiveness of resources aimed at combating institutional and structural racism since 2003.

Villarosa has been a pioneer working at the intersection of racial justice and philanthropy for more than 28 years, deeply engaging with hundreds of funders at the community level, regionally, nationally and internationally, to advance the use of a structural racism lens in their grantmaking and effectively align their internal practices to sustain such a lens.  PRE’s board of racial justice leaders and other movement partners strengthen the capacity of funders through PRE’s conference workshops, Racial Justice Funder Labs, direct consultations, coaching, research and through PRE publications, such as the Guide to Grantmaking with a Racial Equity Lens.

Prior to launching PRE, Villarosa worked at C.S. Mott Foundation for 12 years, where she was instrumental in developing and managing the foundation’s portfolio to explicitly address institutional and societal racism, which was a rarity for a national foundation in the mid-1990s. She has experience as a racial justice change agent from multiple positions within the sector, including service on several foundation boards (currently chairing the Edward W. Hazen Foundation board) and in leadership roles in the past with ABFE, AAPIP (as a past Chair), COF’s Committee on Inclusiveness, and currently on United Philanthropy Forum’s Racial Equity Committee and the steering committee of CHANGE Philanthropy, where PRE is a core partner.  In addition to foundation and PSO boards, she has served on the board of Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, among other nonprofits.