President Obama Announces Intention to Nominate Patrick Corvington as CEO of Corporation for National and Community Service

Washington, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Patrick Corvington to be the Chief Executive Officer for the Corporation for National and Community Service.

“We are excited that the President has chosen a candidate whose passion for service is only surpassed by his commitment to affecting the lives our nation's most vulnerable citizens,” said Alan Solomont and Stephen Goldsmith, Chair and Vice-Chair of the Corporation's Board of Directors, respectfully. “Patrick's management experience, expertise in capacity building and understanding of the value of service today will prove invaluable at this moment of unprecedented need and opportunity for national service.”

The Corporation is at the forefront of the nation's service movement, as the largest grant maker for volunteering and service and the agency leading President Obama's national call to service initiative – United We Serve. The federal agency engages four million Americans annually in service through its core programs – Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America – that address unmet needs facing communities in this tough economic climate.

President Obama has made service a central cause of his Administration and called on every American to volunteer in their local communities. That focus was met with a strong compassion boom by Americans eager to serve and has yielded results – from the drastic increased interest in AmeriCorps to the landmark bipartisan Serve America Act to the launch of United We Serve and the first-ever September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance.

Patrick Corvington, Nominee for Chief Executive Officer
for the Corporation for National and Community Service

Patrick Corvington is a recognized expert on non-profit sector leadership and capacity issues, new and emerging philanthropy, and volunteerism. He currently serves at the Annie E. Casey Foundation as a Senior Associate responsible for guiding the foundation's grantees on issues related toleadership development, next generation leadership, and capacity building. He also acts as Senior Advisor to the Foundation's Executive Vice President, Ralph Smith, who is the Chair of the Council on Foundations. As part of this work Corvington is engaged directly with some of the top social innovation intermediaries in the nonprofit sector and has co-authored publications such as Ready to Lead: Next Generation Leaders Speak Out and Next Shift: Beyond the Nonprofit Leadership Crisis. From 2003-2005, Corvington was Executive Director of Innovation Network, a non-profit agency whose mission is to build the evaluation capacity of the non-profit sector. Previously, he conducted policy researchin the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center at The Urban Institute,and also worked to build the capacity of nonprofit organizations abroad.  

A native of Haiti, Mr. Corvington immigrated to the United States as a teenager. He worked his way through college, earning his B.A. in Sociology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and his M.A. in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University, where he received the National Minority Leadership Fellowship from the Kellogg Foundation. Corvington has devoted his life to serving and empowering communities, beginning his career traveling the East Coast migrant stream as a case manager working with migrant workers. He has also served as an advocate for adjudicated youth as Interim Director at the Sykesville Group Shelter Home andhas worked as a patient advocate in a community-based HIV/AIDS clinic;and has volunteered his timeworking in an infirmary of a shelter for homeless persons. He currently serves on the board of directors of Echoing Green, the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, and the advisory board of the American Humanics Nonprofit Workforce Coalition.