Dr. Carmen Rojas

Dr. Carmen Rojas is the president and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation. Under her leadership, the foundation launched the prestigious Freedom Scholar award, and since starting in 2020 granted more than $160 million in funding to dozens of organizations doing the hard work of shifting power to those people who have long been excluded from having it. Prior to MCF, Dr. Rojas was the co-founder and CEO of The Workers Lab, an innovation lab that partners with workers to develop new ideas that help them succeed and flourish. For more than 20 years, she has worked with foundations, financial institutions, and nonprofits to improve the lives of working people across the country.

Dr. Rojas sits on the boards of Nonprofit Quarterly, Blue Ridge Labs, and San Francisco Federal Reserve’s Community Advisory Council as well as the  Confluence Racial Equity Initiative Advisory Committee. She was also recently named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in U.S. Philanthropy,” by Inside Philanthropy.

She holds a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from UC Berkeley and was a Fulbright Scholar in 2007.