Anna Ponder

Anna is Chief Philanthropy & Impact Officer at T.D. Jakes Foundation. In this key role, she builds relationships with corporate and foundation partners as well as high net worth individuals, who graciously and generously support the foundation’s programmatic work.

Anna brings extensive experience in nonprofit and for-profit management to the foundation. She has served as Vice President for University Advancement at Lawrence University of Wisconsin and the University of South Carolina Beaufort, where she also taught Introduction to American Politics. Before that, she lived and worked in New York City, serving as Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Institute and Director of Marketing and Investor Relations for several hedge fund firms, including Tudor Investment Corporation, Raptor Capital Management, and High Rise Capital Management. She spent her first six years in New York at the Robin Hood Foundation, where she managed Leadership Gifts, working with the foundation’s most generous donors including the Board of Directors.

Before Robin Hood, Anna was on the campaign trail with Bill Bradley for President as Dr. Ernestine Schlant Bradley’s only traveling staffer. She has a profound interest in and has done considerable work around issues of social justice and equality of opportunity. Anna holds a bachelor’s degree in French Language and European History from Spelman College, a master’s degree in International Economics and African Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University. Her dissertation, Empowering Difference, looks critically at the liberal democratic tradition and its capacity and strategies for equity, access, and inclusion.

Anna is an avid traveler, cook, gardener, and pet parent to a sweet Norfolk Terrier named Pearl.