It has been a busy — and exciting — summer here at Irvine. As we move on to implement our new strategic focus, we’ve been strengthening the Foundation for this ambitious journey.

That includes adding capabilities by expanding our team. To that end, I’m excited to announce that we have hired a Chief of Staff and Planning to oversee implementation of our new strategy as well as the planning for our current and future portfolio of initiatives.

Charles Fields joins Irvine with a career-long commitment to innovation and social change. He has more than a decade of leadership experience in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector (most recently at The California Endowment), funding and supporting social sector organizations so that they can achieve greater impact on issues, including criminal justice reform, economic development, educational equity, health, and civic engagement.

In getting to know Charles, his passion, expertise, and commitment to solving California’s toughest problems shine through. His resolve will go a long way as he leads our efforts to work in new ways at Irvine — and ensure that we’re making progress toward our goals.

Charles will be instrumental in coordinating our grantmaking efforts as initiatives (rather than programs). These initiatives allow us to move quickly to address opportunities and take smart risks, while being clear about outcomes and budgets. Taken together as a portfolio, we will seek to integrate and leverage them (through communications, voice, and relationship building) to multiply their impact. You can read about our existing initiatives here, as well as three new ones we’re exploring.

And you can read more about Charles here. We are excited for him to join, and we look forward to adding his voice to our blog section as he gets started with his work.