CHARISSE L. GRANT
 

Charisse Grant is the Director of Programs for Dade Community Foundation, Greater Miami’s philanthropic endowment with assets of more than $150 million dedicated to improving the quality of life for all its residents. Since 1995, she has headed the Foundation’s program department which develops and manages grants programs, educational and convening activities to support nonprofits working on a wide range of issues including social services, education, health, arts and culture and nonprofit capacity building. She also oversees special initiatives that partner with local and national funders to support HIV prevention, leadership development, early childhood programs, gay and lesbian issues and community organizing. The department’s grants programs and community initiatives total $5 million, including six funding programs that make awards to more than 140 nonprofits each year. Ms. Grant earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1986. Before joining the Foundation, she was a Miami Herald reporter for nine years covering social services, public housing, education, community development and urban issues. In 1992-1993, she moved to Namibia to be a volunteer English teacher and traveled extensively in Southern and East Africa. She was among 16 women chosen internationally in 2002 to be a Leadership Foundation Fellow, a program of the International Women’s Forum. Her community service includes: The Children’s Trust Board and past chair of its program services committee, the Center on Nonprofit Effectiveness Board Chair and the John S. & James L. Knight Foundation Miami Advisory Committee. She is the mother of a seven-year-old son.