Foundation President/CEO to Return to Her Alma Mater for Bowie State Commencement Address

Sherece West-Scantlebury is a Leading Voice on the Eradication of U.S. Poverty

MEDIA CONTACT: Damita Chambers, dchambers@bowiestate.edu, 301-832-2628 mobile

(BOWIE, Md.) – A president/CEO of a charitable foundation and a leading voice on eradicating U.S. poverty will return to her alma mater to address about 375 Bowie State University graduates and their families at the winter commencement on Dec. 14 at 10 a.m. in the Leonidas S. James Physical Education Complex. 

With nearly 30 years of experience in community development, public policy, advocacy and public service, Sherece Y. West-Scantlebury (’87) is the president and CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. The private, independent foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of all Arkansans in three interrelated areas: economic development; education; and economic, racial, and social justice. 

One of Bowie State’s oldest living alumni, Alveta S. Jones ('46), of Hyattsville, Maryland, will also be honored at the commencement.

Since Dr. West-Scantlebury joined the foundation in 2007, she has led its Moving the Needle strategic plan to move Arkansas from poverty to prosperity. Since the plan’s launch, the foundation has secured more resources for urban and rural low-income families and helped strengthen the state’s nonprofit organizations; helped create the state’s first taskforce on poverty reduction; and helped leverage several million federal dollars and brought national foundation dollars to the state.

Dr. West-Scantlebury is active in a number of nonprofits and philanthropy organizations. She chairs the board of trustees for Philander Smith College and the executive advisory committee for ForwARd Arkansas. She is a member of the education committee for the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, board of directors for the Center for Community Change, and board of directors for Mission Investors Exchange, Inc. She is also a former member of the Bowie State University Board of Visitors. In addition, she mentors several nonprofit leaders and young foundation executives.

Her numerous honors include being named to the Arkansas Business Journal’s Top 180 Power List, the 2015 Humanitarian Award from Just Communities of Arkansas, and the 2013 Woman of Influence Award from the Arkansas Business Journal. She holds a doctorate in public policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor’s degree from Bowie State University.

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