Lavastian Glenn

Lavastian Glenn joined the Foundation in November 2018 as its Director, Racial and Economic Justice. She has nearly two decades of experience leading racial and economic justice through community-based problem solving and philanthropic strategy across the South.

Most recently, Lavastian served as Program Director at the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation (MRBF) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which works to alleviate poverty and increase social and economic justice in 11 Southern states. There, she led foundation grantmaking and relationship building in SC, Georgia and Alabama. In addition to grantmaking, Lavastian co-managed MRBF’s PRI program and served on the management team. Recognizing the historic role of the South in the civil rights movement and its ongoing, profound influence on the direction of the nation, she also helped create Grantmakers for Southern Progress, a working group of Southern and national philanthropic organizations committed to increasing investments that build infrastructure for structural change in the region.

Lavastian received a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Wake Forest University and participated in a number of local, regional, and national trainings, including NeighborWorks, the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Crossroads’ Dismantling Racism, the North Carolina People’s Coalition on Giving, the Southeastern Council of Foundations Hull Fellowship (2007), and the ABFE Connecting Leaders Fellowship (2012).

She currently serves on the board of Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG) and as a co-chair of Grantmakers for Southern Progress.