Over the course of her almost 30-year career in philanthropy, Carmen James Randolph has made her mark by galvanizing funders, donors, policymakers, and grassroots activists to forever change lives, systems, and communities for good. She knows from first-hand experience the unparalleled and ineffable power a sisterhood holds to support, nurture, and amplify one another, and always makes a point of working in partnership with other women in philanthropy to inspire and guide each other. 

In August 2021, Carmen was named Founding President and CEO of a ground-breaking new foundation, Women’s Foundation of the South (WFS). WFS is boldly revolutionizing gender and racial justice in the Southern U.S. and beyond by centering women and girls from the beginning, leveraging philanthropic resources and support for women of color-led organizations and businesses that are often overlooked or lack proper access to funding. WFS is well on its way to becoming an endowed, regional tour de force in vastly improving the health, wealth, and power of women and girls of color in the South; in less than three years, it has invested more than $1M in 95 woman-led nonprofits serving women and girls of color in four Southern states. It will already be in 7 states by 2025. 

Carmen launched her career at the Humanities Council of Washington D.C., building an innovative, community-based public humanities program and bringing the budget from $30k to $750k in only 5 years, and then with the Meyer Foundation in Washington, D.C., where she served as Senior Program Officer. In her 16-year tenure there, she leveraged more than $20M to support and transform marginalized communities. Most recently, she served as Vice President for Programs at the Greater New Orleans Foundation, where she led a team of 12 professionals to significantly transform the Foundation’s programs in the area’s workforce development, environment, economic security, and disaster grantmaking. 

Carmen has been a fellow in the Aspen Institute, the Neighborhood Funder’s Group Philanthropy Forward initiative, invited to join Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Membership, and named one of the Top Women Leaders of Louisiana for 2024. She holds a BA in American Studies with a concentration in African American Studies from American University.