The JPB Foundation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: April 14, 2023
Media contact: media@jpbfoundation.org
The JPB Foundation Announces Leadership Transition
NEW YORK, NY – The JPB Foundation announced Friday that Barbara Picower will step down as president in February 2024 and be succeeded by Deepak Bhargava. Picower will become president emerita.
The Foundation’s board elected Bhargava – who has been connected for years to JPB as a grantee, board member and, most recently, board vice chair- earlier this month. He will join the Foundation in a part-time role in August before assuming full-time duties as president in February. During this period, Picower and Bhargava will work together to ensure a smooth transition and continued success for the Foundation’s mission and grantees.
“It has been my life’s privilege and honor to support the work of our incredible grantees. I am so proud of what we have accomplished as a foundation, and I am continuously energized and awe-struck by my colleagues and partners who carry out our mission each and every day,” said Picower. “Deepak is the right leader to help carry us into the next phase of our work. I look forward to working alongside him during this transition and supporting the Foundation in my future role as president emerita.”
Bhargava brings over 30 years of expertise in issues such as poverty, economic justice, racial equity and immigrant rights, and has been a leader, campaigner and strategist in social justice movements. He is a distinguished lecturer at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies and senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute.
“Barbara is a visionary leader who built The JPB Foundation with a resounding passion to empower those living in poverty, enrich and sustain our environment, and enable pioneering medical research,” said Bhargava. “It is an honor to lead the Foundation in this next chapter, and as a beneficiary of and participant in social movements, I look forward to working together and seeing what more we can accomplish to further the Foundation’s mission and ensure lasting impact for years to come.”
Prior to joining CUNY, Bhargava led Community Change for 16 years, where he worked to strengthen the community organizing field and launched coalitions to achieve major policy reforms at the federal level. More recently, he co-founded a new organization, Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice, which trains, mentors and supports early and mid-career people working for social change, especially people of color, women, LGBTQ people and people from working class backgrounds. Bhargava is also co-author of a new book, Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World, forthcoming from The New Press this fall.
“As founding donor Barbara Picower has served The JPB Foundation with distinction for nearly 12 years, leading the way on an ambitious poverty fighting, racial justice and women’s rights agenda,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. “As the Foundation evolves, there is no leader in the country better prepared to take the helm from Barbara than Deepak Bhargava. His experience as CEO of Center for Community Change and decades spent community organizing, teaching and mentoring countless young people, make him uniquely qualified for this role. Today is a great day for philanthropy and for the sector.”
Since its founding in 2011, The JPB Foundation has provided over $2.5 billion in grants to support nonprofits that work to advance economic justice, health equity, innovative medical research, women’s rights, environmental health, green infrastructure and more across the United States.
“It’s impossible to express sufficient gratitude and admiration for Barbara Picower’s leadership and generosity. She has built a strategic and effective foundation that supports cutting-edge work. Under her leadership, The JPB Foundation has unquestionably made the country a stronger and more equitable place,” said Cecilia Munoz, Former Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and Co-chair of Welcome.US. “Deepak Bhargava is among the most talented and effective leaders I have ever come to know. He assumes this new responsibility at a tremendously challenging time for our multiracial democracy; his decades of thoughtful, community-focused leadership have been the ideal training ground for the work ahead.”
The JPB Foundation’s mission is to advance opportunity in the United States through transformational initiatives that empower those living in poverty, enrich and sustain our environment, and enable pioneering medical research.