Gwen Foster joined The California Endowment in August 2000, with a solid background in social work and grant making.
As a senior program officer for The California Endowment, Gwen Foster is the staff lead for The Endowment’s statewide grant-making in the area of mental health. She is responsible for the development and implementation of Foundation-initiated efforts to improve the mental health and well-being of vulnerable populations in low-income communities. She currently manages initiatives to strengthen collaborations to deliver mental health services in juvenile justice systems, strengthen integration of mental health services in community clinics, and improve access to services for children in the foster care system.
In 2005, Ms. Foster was appointed to the Prevention and Early Intervention Committee of the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission; the committee is charged with developing a vision and framework to guide the distribution of over $150 million annually from the Mental Health Services Act.
Ms. Foster began her career as a clinical social worker in Bay Area children’s mental health programs at Children’s Hospital, San Francisco and Alameda County Mental Health Services. She went on to the University of California at Berkeley School of Social Welfare, where she taught social work practice courses and developed internships for graduate students in public and nonprofit mental health settings. She shifted her career to the field of philanthropy, becoming a grantmaker at Zellerbach Family Foundation, and then at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. She currently serves on the board of the Parent Services Project, and is a past Board member of Northern California Grantmakers, Association of Black Foundation Executives, the National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention, Women And Philanthropy, Black Adoption Placement and Research Center, and the Alumnae Association of Mills College.
Ms. Foster received an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Mills College, and a Master’s degree in Social Welfare from UCLA.
