The Eisner Foundation Announces Cathy Choi as New Director of Programs

January 6, 2009

LOS ANGELES—Cathy Choi has been hired as the new director of programs of the Eisner Foundation, it was announced by Trent Stamp, executive director. Ms. Choi comes to the Eisner Foundation from the California Community Foundation, where she was a program officer.  At the Eisner Foundation, she will oversee the planning, strategic development and distribution of $7 million in grants annually.

 "Cathy’s professionalism, her experience as a grant-maker, and her immense knowledge of Los Angeles and its diverse communities made her the ideal candidate to lead our programmatic activities," said Trent Stamp. "I am particularly enthused about her ideas in the area of evaluation and analysis, as we want to be industry leaders in benchmarking and effective utilization of metrics for program evaluation."

Cathy Choi has 13 years of diverse professional experience in philanthropy, nonprofit and public sectors.  While a program officer at the California Community Foundation, she oversaw and managed a number of special grant programs covering issues such as after-school programming, arts-based education, child care, foster youth programs, access to health care, historic preservation and homelessness.  Previously, Cathy was external affairs director with the Korean American Coalition national headquarters where she supervised advocacy activities on legislative issues affecting the Korean American and Asian Pacific American communities and implemented community outreach campaigns encouraging people to participate in the 2000 census. She also served as a legislative/field deputy to several local and federal elected officials, including Congressman Xavier Becerra and Los Angeles Unified School District Board Member George Kiriyama.

Cathy serves on the Southern California Steering Committee of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy. She also served on the Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification, Republic of Korea from 2003-2005.  She received her Master’s in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from University of California, Los Angeles.