The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has a core mission of supporting community-led efforts to ensure that every child and family can thrive. To achieve this mission, our efforts are guided by three pillars:

• Thriving Children: Supporting a healthy start and quality learning experiences.
• Working Families: Investing in stable, high-quality jobs and economic opportunities.
• Equitable Communities: Building vibrant, engaged and equitable environments.

As a program officer at the foundation, I have found that economic equity and opportunity are inseparable from our overall mission because children thrive when their families have access to economic security, quality jobs and pathways to advancement. In order to advance economic equity, we focus on addressing the policies, systems and structural barriers that determine who has access to family-sustaining wages, career mobility, ownership, capital, and wealth-building opportunities. Our grantmaking efforts seek to create conditions that support economically secure families and equitable communities where all children not only survive but thrive.

What excites me in this moment is the opportunity to create legacy and make lasting change. We are at another major inflection point with the evolution of generative AI and our growing overall reliance on technology. I think about what this means through a workforce lens. We can either go on the path where workers live in constant fear of job loss, displacement through automation and the decimation of worker power. Or we can remember our humanity and lead with centering people and the environment in the creation of policy that regulates how technology can be used, protects workers from being laid off and replaced by AI and preserves our environment for the generations that will follow. Through the work of our grantees, I see where they are leaning into the latter and not being dissuaded by the heaviness of the moment. In fact, in conversations with grantees I hear hope, determination and a boldness that inspires me and challenges me to ensure that I am doing everything in my power to support their good work and remove barriers to funding.

I am most proud of the resilience I see in the field, the willingness of our grantee partners and networks to keep moving forward while working collectively to envision what new systems that support equitable access to jobs and economic mobility should embody. One grantee that comes to mind is the National Skills Coalition (NSC) and its initiative: The New Promise of Work.  This initiative, seeded by the foundation, is grounded in the premise that workforce development is an economic investment in people, employers, communities and the broader economy. By convening leaders from workforce, education, business, labor, philanthropy, and under-resourced communities, and including Tribal voices, NSC is helping shape a policy framework that reinforces the need for sustained systems change, cross-sector collaboration and equitable public policy.

The biggest barriers I see are the fragmentation of the workforce ecosystem, the disproportionate readiness among workers and organizations to navigate AI-driven change, and the need to reach young people earlier with durable skills and career navigation supports. Too often, education, workforce development, employers and social services operate as disconnected systems, making it difficult for workers and families to access coordinated resources. At the same time, rapid advances in technology and AI are changing what workers need to know and how organizations should support them, yet many young adults and under-resourced workers are not being equipped with the practical skills to use these tools effectively and responsibly. As a grantmaker, I feel a responsibility to support systems-change efforts that take a collaborative approach to building a more modern workforce ecosystem that expands equitable access to responsible AI tools, strengthens the capacity of workforce and community-based organizations, and prepares workers for jobs reshaped by automation and generative AI. The challenge is that the environment is changing so quickly that it can be difficult to know which interventions or collaborations have the greatest likelihood of success. That reality has pushed me to fund with grace and a learning orientation, recognizing that there is no single solution to such a complex issue, but that each effort can surface learnings that move us closer to a more equitable and modern workforce ecosystem.

Coming to philanthropy as a former workforce practitioner, I bring a deep knowledge of program design, implementation and the realities facing workers and communities. In my current role, however, I have recognized the importance of deepening my understanding of how policy shapes economic mobility and either removes or reinforces structural barriers. Participation in the EOF network has given me a valuable space to learn alongside other funders, expand my network and connect day-to-day workforce challenges to broader policy levers.

What are we doing to be good ancestors? I recently attended a convening where this question was posed to the audience, and I continue to reflect on what this means to me. There are so many in history who gave everything for us to enjoy the right to vote, to get an education, to live in communities of our choosing and to marry the person we chose to love. I don’t think we can take that for granted. To this end, I would invite my funder colleagues to ground their grantmaking efforts with this question in mind and push on us all to be people who are willing to take risks and be bold in our grantmaking efforts so that our descendants may have a soft landing and experience a life of abundance, joy and freedom.

My granddaughter, Lilly, inspires me. She is only 10 years old, but she carries herself with such confidence and grace. She dances competitively and when she is on stage she commands the audience, sticks her moves and when she’s done, the audience knows they are witnessing greatness. Yet, when she comes off stage and changes back into her jogging suit, she sits in the audience cheering on her fellow dancers and rooting for them to do their best. For her it’s not about winning. It’s about delivering her best performance. She reminds me that life does not need to be complicated. If we can simply focus on doing our best and being the best version of ourselves every time we’re called upon to perform while supporting those around us to be their best selves, then we have achieved a level of enlightenment that very few will ever know.