Contact:
Rebecca Noricks, communications manager
269.969.2079, rebecca.noricks@wkkf.org
BATTLE CREEK, MICH. – The W.K. Kellogg Foundation today announced that Megan Russell Johnson has joined the foundation as a co-lead for grantmaking efforts in Battle Creek.
In this role, she will also serve on the larger Michigan place-based team to develop programming priorities and to identify and nurture opportunities to affect positive change for children and families within the area.
Program Officer Reggie LaGrand will continue to serve as co-lead for grantmaking in Battle Creek.
Johnson has a variety of experiences in the nonprofit and education sectors. Most recently she served as an associate program officer at the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in Flint, Mich., since 2010, where she worked with a national $10 million portfolio of more than 80 grantees focused on education and afterschool programs. She was also an adjunct faculty member in the English and Social Sciences departments at Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek. In October 2012, Governor Rick Snyder appointed her to the Michigan Community Service Commission. Earlier, she was also a program director at HandsOn Battle Creek. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Albion College in Albion, Mich., and a Master’s of Public Administration from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich. She also has taken additional graduate coursework at the University of Michigan’s School of Education.
“The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is committed to ensuring that all children and families throughout Michigan, and especially in our hometown of Battle Creek, have the opportunity to realize their full potential in school, work and life,” said Aileen Webb, director of Michigan programs, W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
“We are pleased that as a Battle Creek-native, Megan brings knowledge, experience, passion and commitment to this work and are confident that her contributions and the relationships she will build with community-based organizations on behalf of the foundation will help more children and families achieve that potential,” added Webb.
About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.
The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Mich., and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti.
