Welcoming Eugena Oh as President & CEO
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Eugena Oh as President & CEO of the “I Have A Dream” Foundation. Eugena will succeed Donna Lawrence, who began as our CEO in 2014.
Many of you are familiar with Eugena, who has been part of our team since 2011 and served as the organization’s Chief Operating Officer, Chief Governance Officer, and Interim CEO before Donna joined us. Eugena has played a key role in building our administrative, operational, and program-support functions as we work to expand the number of Dreamers we serve to 10,000 by 2020.
“I am both excited and humbled by this opportunity to lead the ‘I Have A Dream’ Foundation as we work together as a network to meet our ambitious expansion goals,” says Eugena. “Over the past 36 years, we as an organization have learned what it can look like when children from low-income communities are given the same educational, social-emotional, and financial resources as their high-income peers. This work can be done in a scalable and replicable way, and our job will not be finished until every child has an equal opportunity to earn a higher education and fulfill their full potential.”
“We are so pleased to welcome Eugena in her new role at ‘I Have A Dream,'” remarked national Board Chairman Ron Terwilliger. “We trust that she will continue to pursue the ambitious goals set by past CEO Donna Lawrence, so that we may continue to serve more Dreamers with our high quality programs, and help level the playing field so that any child, regardless of the zip code they were born into, may have the opportunity to realize their American Dream.”
Eugena brings to her new role a passion for civil rights and social justice, matched with six years of experience working in her numerous roles at the “I Have A Dream” Foundation. Prior to joining “I Have A Dream,” Eugena practiced commercial and products liability law, and served in development, strategy, and operations roles within several non-profit organizations, including Teach For America – New York City, Rock The Vote, and Washington State Court Appointed Special Advocates. Eugena received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and her J.D. from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.
Under Eugena’s leadership, we look forward to making great strides in our mission to empower children from low-income communities to succeed in school, college, and career.
You can view & download the full press release below.