Russell Krumnow
Incoming Executive Director
Russell is thrilled to join SAY and partner with this talented team in the role of Executive Director. He brings 20 years of experience building and leading organizations and campaigns with a strong focus on youth and young adults. From his earliest roles, he led civic engagement programs for high school students, overseeing a program that brought thousands of young people to Washington, DC, each year for experiential learning opportunities. He’s written and implemented curriculum for young people; oversaw speakers and programs for a conference of thousands of students at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration; and with the non-profit Partnership for Public Service he launched a new effort encouraging youth to seek out public service opportunities and solve problems in their communities.
Later, he helped start and eventually lead Opportunity Nation, a cross-partisan, cross-sector campaign focused on expanding access to education and employment for all young people, especially those facing barriers to opportunity where they live. Finally, he led a diverse array of programming for a consensus-building organization convening leaders across fields to forge solutions on issues like youth mental health, economic opportunity, and better supporting working families. An experienced fundraiser, team leader, and relationship builder, all of his past work centered around real people’s lives while seeking to improve systems so everyone can thrive.
He’s honored to join the SAY family in the essential work of unleashing the talent, potential, and voices of the participants in SAY programming. Every young person deserves to flourish and we’re all better off when they do.
The greatest joys of his life are his wife and their two young boys.