Cecilia Conrad

Background and Education

Cecilia Conrad was born on January 4, 1955, in St. Louis, Missouri. She and her family moved to Dallas, Texas when her father was hired at St. Paul’s Hospital as its first Black surgeon on staff. ^{2 3}

Conrad earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Wellesley College and a doctorate in economics in 1982 from Stanford University. ⁴

She is married to Llewellyn Miller as of 2025, where they have one son. ² Miller is an applied mathematician, and their son, Conrad Miller, is an assistant professor of economics at University of California, Berkeley. ⁵

Career

Cecilia Conrad has previously several positions within American universities, including a 17-year tenure at Pomona College in Claremont, California. ⁶ While working at Pomona College, Conrad published articles on the “issue of race and gender on economic status.” She later worked on several publications including as the editor of the Review of Black Political Economy, as an associate editor of Feminist Economics, ⁷ and as a co-editor of the textbook African Americans in the US Economy. She was a visiting scholar at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and an economist at the Federal Trade Commission. ⁸ She eventually became vice president of academic affairs and later rose to Dean of Pomona College. ²

In 2013 she joined the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She was vice president of the Fellows program for 6 years then became managing director of the Fellows Program and the 100&Change program, a competition for a single $100 million grant to “help solve a critical problem of our time.” She led the team that created the 100&Change challenge and she continues to manage the event. ⁹

Conrad has been the CEO of Lever for Change, a grantmaking organization that is affiliated with the MacArthur Foundation, since its start in 2019. She has also worked a senior advisor for the MacArthur Foundation since 2022, continuing to manage its Fellows program and the 100&Change program. ⁶

Conrad is a supporter of “big bet philanthropy,” a practice of making large multi-million-dollar donations to with the intent of impacting a major issue. Other supporters of this approach are the Audacious Project, MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and Melinda French Gates’s Pivotal Ventures. ¹⁰

Political Donations

From 2020 through 2024, Cecilia Conrad has donated to the campaigns of several Democratic candidates and Democratic Party organizations including former President Joe Biden, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Texas state Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas), former Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Democratic National Committee. ¹¹

Board Positions and Memberships

As of 2025, Cecelia Conrad is a member of the board of governors for the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) ⁶ as well as a board member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), the Hypothesis Fund, and Giving Tuesday. She is a member of the board of trustees for the Future Leaders Foundation and IES Abroad ¹² and a 2024 elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. ¹³

Awards and Recognition

Conrad was recognized by Time Magazine as a TIME100 Philanthropy 2025 Leader for her work at Lever for Change. According to the TIME100 article, Conrad assisted MacKenzie Scott in identifying candidate organizations for her Yield Giving philanthropy 2023 “open call.” Scott donated $640 million to 361 groups through Yield Giving, which was double the amount she initially pledged. Conrad has also advised LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. ¹