Tamara Toles O’Laughlin Named New President and Chief Executive Officer of The New York Women’s Foundation

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, October 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The New York Women’s Foundation is pleased to announce that it has named Tamara Toles O’Laughlin as its next President and CEO. She succeeds Ana L. Oliveira, who will step down after more than 20 years of successful stewardship of The Foundation.

Toles O’Laughlin will begin at the start of the new year, as The Foundation marks its 40th anniversary during a consequential moment for the communities it serves. She brings extensive experience as an activist and trusted advisor, serving in multiple groundbreaking roles in philanthropy and nonprofit leadership. Toles O’Laughlin has a well-earned reputation as a thought leader who shifts power, practice and resources toward community-led solutions.

“We are excited to welcome Tamara at such an important moment for The New York Women’s Foundation,” said Mary Baglivo and Tanya Odom, Co-Chairs of The Foundation’s Board of Directors. “Ana Oliveira’s extraordinary leadership over the past 20 years has shaped The Foundation into what it is today, and we are deeply grateful for all she has made possible. Tamara understands that communities know what they need, and that philanthropy is most powerful when it backs their leadership. She recognizes the strength of what has been built and sees how much more is possible.”

Toles O’Laughlin serves as the President and CEO of the Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA), a network of more than 200 foundations globally that hold approximately $200 billion in assets and grant more than $2.95 billion annually to environmental causes. She has led the Association for over five years, working with grantmakers at every level to align philanthropic responses to today’s conditions while staying accountable to the people most affected by them tomorrow.

She is the founder of Climate Critical, a global support network fighting burnout in the environmental workforce. Her impressive career includes serving as North America Director at 350.org and 350 Action and as Executive Director of the Maryland Environmental Health Network. She was a founding supporter of the Maryland Campaign for Environmental Human Rights and provides counsel as Senior Advisor to vanguard initiatives, including those of the Green Leadership Trust, Climate Refugees and Friends of the Earth Action. She also serves as a foundation and institutional trustee.

Toles O’Laughlin is a Brooklyn native with multiple advanced degrees focused on law, energy and environment. She has lived experience with philanthropy, from leading organizations that raise money to do essential work to advising foundation presidents and trustees and serving as Chair of the Good Trouble Fund at Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, which supports grassroots campaigns and advocates. She has deep knowledge and experience on the issues and is well regarded in the sector.

Anne E. Delaney and Lola C. West, Co-Chairs of the Board’s Search Committee, said Toles O’Laughlin distinguished herself throughout the national search by demonstrating her thought leadership and humane approaches to the people around her.

“Tamara is a rigorous thinker who knows how to listen,” Delaney and West said. “She came into every conversation with a clear sense of what she could bring to The Foundation and how she could continue to grow its impact. She knows where she wants to go and how to bring people with her.”

Toles O’Laughlin is known for her nimble thinking in complex situations and has written extensively about the limits of siloed and separate problem-solving as a misguided strategy for changing people’s lives. In her environmental work, that has meant living with an intersectional approach on class, gender and race to address the consequences of decisions and create accountability to those who hold the power to make them.

“The New York Women’s Foundation addresses deeply connected issues shaping people’s lives,” Toles O’Laughlin said. “What happens in your home, neighborhood and community shapes what is possible in every other part of your life. The Foundation has long trusted women and gender-expansive leaders to understand the connections and build solutions within their own communities, on their own terms. That belief in community is what draws me to The Foundation and what I intend to carry forward.”

Toles O’Laughlin will take the helm after more than two decades of leadership by Oliveira, who transformed The Foundation’s scale and reach while keeping community leadership at its center. During her tenure, annual grantmaking grew from $1.7 million to more than $10 million, supporting work across economic justice, health and bodily autonomy, civic engagement and other issues shaping the lives of women and gender-expansive people. The Foundation has deepened its investment in underfunded movements, including disability justice and LGBTQIA communities, while stepping up as an influential voice to model philanthropy that invests early and trusts communities to lead as the standard rather than treating it as a risk.

For Oliveira, that growth has always been about what The Foundation makes possible. She has watched organizations The Foundation backed early become established forces in their communities and seen ideas once overlooked by philanthropy gain wider support. It is something she recognizes in Toles O’Laughlin.

“Tamara understands this moment and what philanthropy can make possible in it,” Oliveira said. “She listens before deciding what needs to happen next and understands that our role is not to arrive with the answers. It is to stand alongside the women and gender-expansive leaders who know their communities and make sure they have the resources to lead. I know that she will bring her strategic thinking and full commitment to The Foundation.”

Norah Lawlor
Lawlor Media Group, Inc.
+1 212-967-6900
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