congrats to Laura Washington Announced as Woods Fund President
Activist Journalist Laura Washington Selected as New Woods Fund of Chicago President
The Woods Fund of Chicago board announced today that it has selected longtime board member
and journalist Laura S. Washington as its new president.
Washington brings to the Woods Fund more than two decades of diverse experience in print and
broadcast journalism, urban affairs and social justice issues; 12 years of nonprofit management
experience; and numerous awards and honors for her exemplary journalism and civic activism.
“After an extensive search that included over 200 candidates from all over the country, we selected
Laura Washington, one of our nation’s leading experts in social justice issues, and someone with
deep experience in Chicago’s civic, nonprofit, academic and political communities,” said
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Chairman of the Woods Fund Board of Directors.
Washington joins the Woods Fund as it implements a new core principle of racial equity. The Woods Fund
chose to recently incorporate a racial equity perspective into its grant making. The Fund plans to focus
on ways in which race and ethnicity shape power, access to opportunity, treatment and related outcomes
in metropolitan Chicago. The foundation hopes this practice will inform solutions that will eliminate inequalities.
“I am honored to lead this illustrious foundation as we embark upon this pioneering effort focusing on
racial equity,” Washington said. “The Woods Fund plays an instrumental role in empowering and
increasing opportunities for the less advantaged communities in Chicago. We are well positioned to
combat structural racism, a fundamental barrier to enabling work and eradicating poverty in these
communities.” Washington is widely recognized as one of Chicago’s most influential and respected
journalists. She currently writes a column for the Chicago Sun-Times and regularly appears on
National Public Radio, Chicago Public Radio and WTTW as an analyst and commentator on race,
politics and current affairs. She is also widely quoted and featured in national media, including Time
and Newsweek magazines, The New York Times, NBC Nightly News, the PBS News Hour and the BBC.
Washington launched her career in 1980 as a reporter at The Chicago Reporter. In the mid-1980s, she
served as Deputy Press Secretary to Mayor Harold Washington during his first and second terms.
Washington also worked as an investigative producer at CBS-2/Chicago and correspondent for
WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight.” She returned to The Chicago Reporter in 1990 and served for 12 years
as its editor, then publisher.
Washington’s academic career is equally extensive. She served as the Ida B. Wells-Barnett University
Professor at DePaul University and Fellow at DePaul’s Humanities Center from 2003 to 2009. She also
did stints as an instructor and lecturer at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University from
1987 to 2003. Washington earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s in journalism from Medill.
Washington begins her tenure on March 1, after eight years as a Woods Fund board member and
three years as its chair. She takes over for former President Deborah Harrington, who is retiring
from Woods after 10 years of distinguished service.
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The Woods Fund of Chicago is a grant making foundation whose goal is to increase opportunities
for less advantaged people and communities in the Chicago metropolitan area. Woods supports
nonprofits in their important roles of engaging people in civic life, addressing the causes of poverty
and other challenges facing the region, promoting more effective public policies, reducing racism
and other barriers to equal opportunity, and building community and common ground.
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