Cecilia Conrad

Cecilia Ann Conrad (born 4 January 1955) is the CEO of Lever for Change, emeritus professor of economics at Pomona College, and a senior advisor to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

[1][2][3] She formerly served as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Pomona College and previously oversaw the foundation's MacArthur Fellows and 100&Change programs as managing director.

Dr. Emmett Conrad was appointed to the Texas State Board of Education by Governor Mark White in 1984, the first African American elected to a citywide office in Dallas.

[1][8] Conrad says evening news coverage of the Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movement, and the international monetary system sparked her interest in economics.

[6][11] Also during this time, Conrad was a fellow in the Bell Laboratories Cooperative Research program, an affirmative action effort to increase the pool of women and minorities with doctoral degrees who might become future employees.

[13] In 1995, Conrad joined the faculty at Pomona College where she served various roles including the Stedman Sumner Chair in Economics.

[13] Conrad also served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Pomona from 2004–2007, during which she expanded the summer undergraduate research program to embrace a humanities and liberal arts style education.