Wendy Torrance

Wendy E. F. Torrance is Director, Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships. She brings more than 25 years of experience in philanthropy and higher education to this role. Prior to joining the Council she was a director at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. She launched and led several new programs and grant initiatives during her long tenure there. She was a founding leader of the Entrepreneurship Funders Network. Earlier in her career she was Assistant Dean of Freshmen and Lecturer on Social Studies at Harvard University. Her experience spans strategy development, training program design and delivery (including online curricula), grant making and operations, partnership development, staff supervision and mentorship, and higher education teaching and academic & residential advising.

Wendy is an honors graduate of the University of Washington and holds an AM and PhD in political science from Harvard University where she was awarded a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship. She enjoys the performing arts and getting outdoors. She is an avid reader and often has two or three books and magazine issues under way all at once.