Jeffrey L. Richardson has been named the new Executive Director of the Liberty Hill Foundation. He joined Liberty Hill on October 17, 2005. Jeffrey has spent more than 20 years working for prominent social justice organizations throughout the country. He brings outstanding fundraising, managerial and organizing experience to the foundation.

As the campaign director of SEIU Local 1877 for the last 16 months, Jeffrey has been spearheading the largest union organizing effort of black employees in American history. Prior to his most recent work in Los Angeles, he led fundraising, managerial and training programs at the National Congress for Community Economic Development, the national trade association for economic development serving low-income people of color. Before moving to Washington D.C., Jeffrey spent four years as a Development Officer and Director of Foundation Relations for United Way and served as the Executive Director of Jobs with Peace Campaign in Pittsburgh. His position at Jobs with Peace brought him to Los Angeles for the first time 20 years ago. In L.A., he learned electoral mobilization and grassroots democracy-building.

Jeffrey has received numerous awards including the Pittsburgh NAACP/Urban League of Pittsburgh "Barrier Breaker Award" and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Coalition Award.

"My life work has been to help people find the power in themselves and exercise that power to transform their lives and communities," he says. "That work is both political and spiritual. Dr. King talked about 'personalism' -- respecting the humanity of each person. That is core to my belief in how we do our work. Winning campaigns is important, but how we do the work is as important as doing it. Liberty Hill's work in philanthropy embodies that spirit of personalism and I am very proud to be joining the nation's leading social justice foundation."

Jeffrey was raised in Pittsburgh. His father was a postal inspector and his mother a social worker. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Jeffrey studies Ban Do, a martial art, and is a huge John Coltrane fan. His wife, P. Gabrielle Foreman, is an Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at Occidental College.