Lisa Hamilton, President and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, delves into the organisation’s mission and its groundbreaking efforts to create lasting change for children and families across the United States.
The foundation, established by Jim Casey, the founder of UPS — the world's largest logistics company — carries forward a legacy rooted in empowering young people facing adversity. With an annual grant distribution exceeding $100 million and an endowment of $3.5 billion, the foundation focuses on child welfare, economic opportunity, community development, and juvenile justice reform.
Lisa highlights the foundation’s innovative approach to philanthropy, acting as a catalyst for systemic change rather than merely funding ongoing programs. By identifying promising ideas, piloting initiatives in diverse communities, and leveraging data to scale proven solutions, the foundation partners with nonprofits, government agencies, and community stakeholders to effect change at scale. She underscores the importance of improving systemic operations — whether within juvenile justice, child welfare, or education systems — to ensure sustainability and broad impact.
A key topic of the discussion is the foundation’s Thrive by 25 initiative, which focuses on adolescence as a critical and transformative period of development. Lisa emphasises the necessity of providing young people aged 14 to 24 with the resources and opportunities to succeed, including access to housing, education, financial stability, and meaningful adult relationships. She stresses the importance of aligning programs with emerging brain science, which highlights adolescence as a time of heightened potential for growth and learning.
Lisa calls for a collective reimagining of adolescence as a time of promise rather than peril. She celebrates this life stage as a cornerstone of human development and a fertile period for nurturing leadership, resilience, and creativity.
About Lisa Hamilton
Lisa M. Hamilton is the president and chief executive officer of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private philanthropy based in Baltimore and dedicated to building a brighter future for children, youth, families and communities in the United States. The Foundation was established by Jim Casey, founder of the logistics company UPS, and named in honor of his mother.
Since taking the helm in 2019, Hamilton has spearheaded several new initiatives to maximize Casey’s impact, including its Thrive by 25® effort, which aims to improve outcomes for adolescents ages 14–24 to ensure they successfully transition to adulthood.
Before becoming president, Hamilton was the Foundation’s executive vice president and chief program officer, overseeing all the organization’s grant-making efforts. Prior to that, she served as vice president of external affairs, leading Casey’s work to provide data, analysis, research and policy solutions to help all children realize their full potential. In this role, Hamilton oversaw the Foundation’s annual KIDS COUNT Data Book and was a key architect of the Race for Results series, which compares how children across racial and ethnic groups are faring at the state and national levels on key education, health and economic milestones.
Hamilton came to the Foundation after a 14-year career with UPS, where she held various roles, including president of the UPS Foundation and vice president of corporate public relations. Her unique blend of philanthropic and corporate expertise has helped Hamilton expand Casey’s reach and find new ways to improve child well-being.
A testament to her influence in the sector was Hamilton’s selection as one of Inside Philanthropy’s 50 most powerful women in U.S. philanthropy in 2023 and her inclusion in the Nonprofit Times’ Power & Influence Top 50 list in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024.
Hamilton’s dedication to service extends beyond the Annie E. Casey Foundation. She is a member of numerous national boards, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Living Cities and StriveTogether, and is on the advisory board of the public company Twilio.org. Hamilton is deeply committed to the Casey Foundation’s hometown, serving on the boards of the Baltimore Community Foundation and Baltimore’s Promise, as well as the board of the Greater Washington Partnership.
An Atlanta native, Hamilton earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the University of Michigan. She also received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Livingstone College.