WILLIAM PENN FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES HILARY RHODES AS NEW DIRECTOR OF EVALUATION AND LEARNING

PHILADELPHIA (January 29, 2018) – The William Penn Foundation announced today the appointment of Hilary Rhodes as the organization’s new director of evaluation and learning.  Rhodes is responsible for developing and implementing a new internal evaluation and learning program for the foundation, which will promote and support the foundation’s strategic use of evaluation to improve the effectiveness of its grantmaking across all focus areas.

Rhodes is the second addition to join William Penn Foundation’s leadership team from a national foundation in recent months. Rhodes previously worked for The Wallace Foundation in New York City, and this past fall Judilee Reed was announced as the new director of Creative Communities, having previously worked at the Surdna Foundation also located in New York City. 

“Hilary’s previous experience and national perspective will be a tremendous addition to our team,” said Shawn McCaney, Executive Director of the William Penn Foundation. “We are excited to increase our internal capacity to evaluate the impact of our grantmaking, and learn how we can strengthen our work moving forward for the benefit of the communities we serve.”

While at The Wallace Foundation Rhodes served as a senior research and evaluation officer, and led efforts to fill key knowledge gaps and generate evidence of what worked related to learning and enrichment opportunities for disadvantaged children and youth.

“I am thrilled to have this opportunity to work with such a smart and committed organization and enable it to maximize its use of evaluation and research as critical tools for promoting social change,” said Rhodes.

Prior to joining The Wallace Foundation Rhodes worked at Abt Associates Inc where she led a multi-disciplinary team of eight researchers and directed the national evaluation of NASA’s Summer of Innovation Project, a program targeting middle school students.  Her experience in applied research spans the for-profit and nonprofit sectors and an array of social and strategic issues. Rhodes holds a Ph.D. in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School, an M.Sc. in gender relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a B.S. in chemistry from Washington and Lee University.

About the William Penn Foundation
The William Penn Foundation, founded in 1945 by Otto and Phoebe Haas, is dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Greater Philadelphia region through efforts that increase educational opportunities for children from low-income families, ensure a sustainable environment, foster creativity that enhances civic life, and advance philanthropy in the Philadelphia region. In partnership with others, the Foundation works to advance opportunity, ensure sustainability, and enable effective solutions. Since inception, the Foundation has made nearly 10,000 grants totaling over $1.6 billion. The Foundation’s assets exceed $2.6 billion as of December 31, 2017.

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