Nonprofit executive and educational leader Ryan Lugalia-Hollon will join the San Antonio Area Foundation as its next Chief Impact Officer (CIO). Lugalia-Hollon was selected following a national search. He starts Oct. 21.
He comes to the Area Foundation after seven years as CEO of UP Partnership, a leading local educational nonprofit. “It gives me great joy to welcome Ryan as our new Chief Impact Officer,” said Nadege Souvenir, CEO at the Area Foundation. “In this role, Ryan will provide executive leadership, providing strategic direction over our grantmaking programs, community impact activities and key initiatives. His deep passion for San Antonio is a great fit for our vision of closing opportunity gaps for those who need it most.”
In the CIO role, Lugalia-Hollon will oversee the Area Foundation’s Community Engagement and Impact team, the organization’s nucleus for grantmaking and support for nonprofit partners. The department also houses the Successfully Aging and Living in San Antonio (SALSA) program, a coalition of more than 50 local nonprofits focused on uplifting older adults.
“I am excited to join the San Antonio Area Foundation. My goal is to help close the gap between what San Antonio communities need to thrive and the resources it takes for those needs to be met,” Lugalia-Hollon noted.
In the new position, he will continue working on a nationally-funded educational program he initiated at UP Partnership – Future Ready Bexar County Plan, focused on increasing college enrollment. The Area Foundation is one of the project’s top funders.
“I remain committed to helping more than 100 partners find ways to better support young people of our city with the North Star of increasing postsecondary enrollment to 70% by 2030,” he said.
Prior to his tenure at UP Partnership, Lugalia-Hollon served as founding Executive Director of Excel Beyond the Bell, an out-of-school time pioneering program formerly housed at the Area Foundation.
Lugalia-Hollon previously worked as an executive at the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. He’s also the co-author of The War on Neighborhoods: Policing, Prison and Punishment in a Divided City. He holds a master’s and doctorate in Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was selected as Outstanding Young San Antonian of 2020 by the Rotary Club of San Antonio and was awarded this month as “Hero for Children” by the Texas State Board of Education.
