Deirdre Johnson Burel is a senior program officer for the New Orleans team with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan.
In this role, she leads the Foundation’s place-based strategy in New Orleans providing leadership for the New Orleans team, ensuring strong execution of grant portfolio development, and approving grants for funding as recommended by a team of program officers. She also develops and maintains strategic relationships to leverage participation of other foundations, businesses, communities, governmental agencies, and other key decision makers in alignment with WKKF core values and program interests.
Prior to joining the foundation, Johnson Burel spent nearly two decades working in government and nonprofits advancing educational equity through work on policy, advocacy, and building catalytic partnerships between national and community-based programs. She has published on participatory action research, educator and leader diversity and the role of racial socialization in shaping praxis. Over the span of her career, her commitment to community voice and civic engagement has garnered her numerous recognitions.
Johnson Burel is an alumnus of the inaugural cohort of the W.K. Kellogg Community Leadership fellowship. She is an active member of the New Orleans community where she is involved in civic life including serving on several nonprofit boards, most recently Propeller and Compassion Outreach of America. She is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
She holds a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in organizational and educational leadership, an MPA from New York University, Robert F. Wagner, Graduate School of Public Service and a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science (with a minor in African American Studies) from the University of California, Berkeley.