Diana N Derige

Diana Derige is a program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Mich.

As a member of the Food, Health & Well-Being team, Derige is responsible for leadership and vision in program conceptualization, design, planning, management, coordination, communication, evaluation, policy and learning of a national portfolio. She maintains accurate and current knowledge about trends, movements and developing policy to stimulate appropriate programming directions. She supports local investment by serving as a convener, collaborator and catalyst, responsible for nurturing opportunities for affecting positive systemic change in communities, executing programming efforts aligned with the foundation’s mission. She focuses on funding opportunities that enable the foundation to make progress in ensuring that all children can grow and thrive by having love, good parenting, high-quality food, physical activity, interaction with nature and access to healthcare.

Prior to joining the foundation in 2010, Derige worked for more than 10 years in public health, public policy, advocacy and community-based philanthropy. She held positions as a program officer for The Chicago Community Trust, state coordinator for the Ounce of Prevention Fund and program manager for the Illinois Public Health Institute.

Derige has also been a fellow for the National Hispana Leadership Institute, Mid-America Regional Public Health Leadership Institute, and the University of Michigan’s HIV/AIDS Intervention, South Africa.

Derige holds a bachelor’s degree in arts, sociology and women’s studies and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan. She also holds a certificate in executive education from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and completed a leadership development program through the Center for Creative Leadership-Europe in Brussels, Belgium.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.

The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Mich., and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org.