Victoria Foundation Appoints De’Shawn Wright to Board of Trustees

Victoria Foundation is proud to announce the appointment of De'Shawn Wright to its Board of Trustees. He was unanimously elected as a member during the Board of Trustees' Annual Meeting in June and joins the Foundation with more than two decades of experience in a variety of roles, including leadership positions within education and the nonprofit sector. Wright will play a pivotal role on the board as Victoria Foundation continues to develop its framework of strengthening community power, fostering economic justice, promoting youth self-determination, and responding to pressing needs.

In response to being named a Foundation board member, Wright said "I am honored to join the board of the Victoria Foundation and contribute to its mission to empower the Newark community and create generational change."

"We are very excited that De'Shawn has been named to the Board of Trustees," said Victoria Foundation Executive Officer Craig Drinkard. "He brings to the table a wealth of knowledge that we will greatly benefit from as we continue to champion bold strategies that support Black and Brown residents and other marginalized communities in Newark."

Wright is the chief executive officer/president of Keystone Consulting LLC, consulting firm he founded that provides strategy, policy, management, and operations support to a diverse range of organizations and leaders in the nonprofit, public, and private sector. Within this role, he has served as interim chief executive officer for a preeminent public-private partnership organization dedicated to the economic revitalization of Newark, New Jersey; negotiated and facilitated the return of local control to New Jersey's largest school district after more than 20 years of state oversight; and designed and launched a transformative racial equity initiative in collaboration with nationally recognized nonprofit and advocacy organizations; amongst other initiatives.

Wright has also had a long and decorated career in the field of education. He was appointed by former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to serve as the Deputy Secretary for Education, the highest-ranking education post in the Executive Chamber of New York State Government, where he was responsible for developing and implementing the governor's statewide education agenda; overseeing an annual budget of more than $30 billion; and managing the administration's collaborations with the State Department of Education, State and City Universities of New York, and the Higher Education Services Corporation. Prior to joining the Cuomo Administration, he was appointed by former Mayor Vincent C. Gray to the post of Deputy Mayor for Education in Washington, DC, where he created a citywide strategy that encompassed early childhood education, K- 12, post-secondary education, and workforce development.

Wright previously served as the chief policy advisor to former Newark Mayor (now United States Senator) Cory A. Booker and as a policy analyst in New York City's Office of Operations under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Wright also held several senior management positions in the New York City Department of Education during the tenure of Chancellor Joel Klein and was a founding partner of the Newark Charter School Fund.

Wright received a bachelor's degree from James Madison University and earned a master's degree from New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service. He serves the boards of Teach for America and the National Summer School Initiative.