Michele Prichard
Michele Prichard retired in 2023 after 34 years of staff service to the Los Angeles-based Liberty Hill Foundation.
Serving as executive director from 1989 to 1997, Michele spearheaded the foundation’s expansion into new grantmaking and donor education programs focused on poverty, racial justice and environmental health. She led the Environmental and Climate Justice philanthropic work at Liberty Hill through a combination of cutting-edge research, alliance building and community organizing, including support for the STAND LA campaign (Standing Together Against Neighborhood Drilling-LA) that has won policy change to end fossil fuel extraction in Los Angeles. Prior to Liberty Hill, she worked at the Southern California Council of Churches on homelessness, peace, and human rights.
Michele has worked to expand philanthropy’s commitment to social and environmental justice through many funder associations, and in 2012, received the Distinguished Service Award from the Council on Foundations, the association’s highest honor. Since 2007, she has served as a Senior Fellow in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs where she mentors graduate students. Since 2012, Michele has served as a Senior Advisor to California Calls, advancing progressive taxation and reform of Proposition 13. She is a national board member of Greenpeace USA and serves on the Advisory Board of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. Her most recent publication is POWER OF PERSISTENCE: The Fight to End Neighborhood Oil Drilling in Los Angeles (Summer 2023).
Michele joined the board in January 2026.