LouAnn Ross
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. LouAnn Ross is a nationally recognized nonprofit leader with experience across a variety of nonprofit fields to include human services, community development, and heath care advocacy, but her passion remains with educational excellence and equity for all since she taught as a first-grade teacher in rural North Carolina years ago. Throughout her career, Dr. Ross has led the turn-around of two nonprofit organizations and the start-up of another – all with great success.
With broad experience in change management and organizational excellence, she has been recognized by NeighborWorks America, receiving the national association’s “Excellence in Leadership” award and led two nonprofit organizations that have been the recipients of the Citizen’s Bank “Community Champion” award. With a strong focus on community input, emerging trends and challenges, she has developed innovative new programs. Two such programs were recognized, receiving awards and acclamation to include the Dominion Impact Award and the national NeighborWorks “Winning Strategy Award for Best Practices in Effective Partnerships”. Her personal mission is simply to make the world a better place through service to others.
Dr. Ross holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration where her focus was on Nonprofit Leadership (BA, University of Pittsburgh). Her graduate studies centered on public policy and management (MPPM, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs) and the empowerment of parents and students in underperforming rural schools (MAEd, East Carolina University). Her doctoral dissertation focused on equity in leadership development (EDD, Point Park University). She serves on numerous boards of directors and serves as an Adjunct Instructor for several institutions of higher education where she teaches courses in nonprofit leadership. She is the happily married, mother of two and proud Nonni of one cute granddaughter, an enthusiastic world traveler, avid reader and hostess of the world-famous Sunday Dinners at her home in Pittsburgh, PA.
