The Educational Foundation of America names new Executive Director

September 16, 2020 
For immediate release 

The Educational Foundation of America (EFA) announced today that David Stocks has been named Executive Director of the foundation.  Stocks has served as Interim Executive Director since May, following the departure of the previous Executive Director, Melissa Beck.   

EFA Board President Heidi Ettinger said, “Having worked so successfully with David the last five years, the EFA family is confident that he can lead EFA through these tumultuous times with a steady hand, informed by creative and innovative strategic thinking.” 

Stocks said “I am honored to take on this new challenge, and to continue to be a part of EFA’s supporting progressive change in America.  I look forward to leading EFA’s next chapter of growth.” 

Stocks joined EFA in 2015. Prior to serving as Interim Executive Director, he directed the organization’s Arts Program.  In that role, he facilitated strategic planning that has led to the program’s long-term focus on supporting creative placemaking in Central Appalachia and in the Alabama Black Belt, and he was instrumental in conceiving a consortium of Black civil rights historic sites in that state that is receiving national attention. 

Stocks came to EFA with over a decade’s experience as a nonprofit chief executive, including at the Shaker Museum/Mount Lebanon in upstate New York, and at Friends of the Katy Trail in Dallas, Texas, where he was also the founding board president. 

EFA is a family foundation launched in 1959 by Richard P. and Elsie P. Ettinger.  Today, the foundation makes grants in the Arts, Democracy, the Environment, Food Security, and Reproductive Health and Justice. To learn more about EFA, please visit www.TheEfa.org