United States

Kilolo Kijakazi

Program Officer New York

Kilolo Kijakazi's work focuses on building economic security for working families. Her grant making promotes public support for the creation of universal, progressive savings accounts from birth through retirement, and Social Security reform that improves benefits for low-wage workers. This approach incorporates the expertise of people of color into all aspects of the work, including research, policy and practice.

Before joining the Ford Foundation in 2003, Kilolo was a senior policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where she specialized in Social Security. She wrote and presented research and policy papers, testified before Congress, and served as a panelist at the White House Conference on Social Security during the Clinton administration. Some of her papers were published by the National Academy of Social Insurance and the Gerontological Society.

She previously worked as a program analyst for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, where she designed and monitored evaluations of the Food Stamp Program and demonstrations of noncustodial parent programs. She also worked at the National Urban League's Washington operations office as a policy analyst and addressed issues such as welfare reform, employment and education.

Kilolo received a Ph.D. in public policy from George Washington University, and her dissertation was published as the book "African-American Economic Development and Small Business Ownership" (Garland, 1997). She also holds an M.S.W. with a specialty in community development from Howard University, and a B.A. from Binghamton University.