Staff
Chynna A. Phillips
Senior Director of Policy and Research
Chynna A. Phillips serves as the Foundation’s director of research and policy. In this role, she works on the Foundation’s public policy and advocacy work, collaborating with leadership to strategically set policy priorities and bring awareness to systems-level poverty drivers. Her role is also responsible for the management of all research studies conducted by or in collaboration with the Foundation. In addition, Chynna leads the Foundation’s external partnership with HBCUs through the President’s Fellows Program. She provides hands-on support to and interaction with community, state, and national stakeholders.
Chynna was named a Connecting Leaders Fellow by the Association of Black Funding Executives (ABFE) in 2021, listed as one of The State newspaper’s “Top 20 under 40, Young Adult Honorees” in 2020, and listed on Columbia Business Monthly’s “Best and Brightest: 35 and Under” in 2019.
Education
MSW and MPH
University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.
B.A. in Sociology
Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
— James Baldwin
