Foundation for a Healthy High Point Hires New Executive Director Committed to Expanding Their Impact

Foundation for a Healthy High Point Hires New Executive Director Committed to Expanding Their Impact

12/21/2020
Curtis Holloman joins the Foundation with 20 years of community investment experience and ambitious plans for the organization’s future.  
 
 
HIGH POINT, N.C., December 18, 2020 -- The Foundation for a Healthy High Point has hired Curtis Holloman, MA, MBA, a North Carolina native with a long history of fighting healthcare inequities and investing in communities, to serve as their new Executive Director. 
 
In this role, Holloman will build on the Foundation’s solid infrastructure and early successes. In the seven years since their inception, the Foundation has launched multiple key initiatives to improve the long-term health of those who call High Point, Jamestown, Trinity and Archdale home, including Healthy Beginnings, a grantmaking program focused on teen pregnancy prevention and early childhood development. Holloman strives to expand and deepen the Foundation’s impact by developing and investing in additional forward-thinking, community-based solutions that address sickness from the source. 
 
“The Foundation’s goals align with mine,” Holloman says. “We believe in using all the tools of philanthropy—analyzing core problems, building thoughtful partnerships, investing in solutions—to create upstream, systemic change.” 
 
Spearheading systemic change has been a hallmark of Holloman’s career. As Deputy Director at Penn State College of Medicine’s Office of Rural Health Policy, Holloman was part of the National Program Office team that administered the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) Southern Rural Access Program, which improved healthcare access in eight underserved southern states. Following that, he served as Deputy Director of another RWJF program office based out of the Health Research and Educational Trust at the New Jersey Hospital Association where he worked alongside local nonprofits and funders. He was a part of the team that collaborated with 1,500 funding partners and awarded 369 grants to community-based initiatives.
 
Most recently, as Senior Advisor and Director of Grants and Programs of the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg, Holloman led projects that resulted in commitments of $17 million in grants to 108 community projects over three years. Forging new partnerships and strengthening community engagement across Greater High Point will be Holloman’s top priorities as he steers the Foundation toward the future. 
 
“Our thoughtfulness in bringing people together is strong, and Curtis will help us to build on these efforts,” Program Officer Whitney Davis says. "His selection is a signal of the kind of meaningful impact and leadership the Foundation hopes to bring to the community.”
 
According to other Foundation leaders, tapping into the organization’s true potential is critical at this moment in time. 
 
“This was a year where blatant inequalities around food, health care and housing access within our communities rose to the surface,” Interim Executive Director Allen Smart says. “It’s led us to become more externally focused and create more opportunities for the community to fill a seat at our table.”
 
To engage the community, Holloman plans to hit the ground running, conducting data assessments, surveying stakeholders and nonprofits, and holding virtual meetings to gather feedback as the Foundation formulates their future plans. Through this process, the Foundation will continue to invest in the health of the community with no interruptions to funding. 
 
“Curtis’s interest to get other folks to step up and leverage what the Foundation is already doing brings a fresh perspective to the team,” Elliott Williams, MD, Treasurer and Board Member Executive, says. “His obvious passion for his work and compassion for all will lead us into the future,” Banking Executive and Board Chair Leah Penry Price adds. “With his help, we’ll convene leaders from every industry to develop strategies that lessen inequities and make transformational changes in the health of our community.” 
 
After working with numerous communities across the nation to strengthen their capacity to respond to health challenges, Holloman looks forward to bringing his years of experience and passion back to his home state—and proudly doing so as one of the few African-American Executive Directors in the North Carolina Network of Grantmakers. 
 
“I’ve been away for 20 years,” Holloman says as he recalls his early work as a Public Health Director for North Carolina’s Sampson and Scotland Counties. “But after all this time, I’ve learned that you never really leave where your heart is.”
 
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