Kathy (Fitchey) Calvin - Doctor of Social Sciences

May 2013  


Kathy (Fitchey) Calvin

Kathy (Fitchey) Calvin
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Ms. Kathy (Fitchey) Calvin is president and CEO of the United Nations Foundation. The UN Foundation was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner's historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities. The UN Foundation advocates for the UN and connects people, ideas and resources to help the United Nations solve global problems. As a public charity with many other partners, the foundation's work is focused on decreasing child mortality, empowering women and girls, creating a clean energy future, using mobile technology for development, and improving U.S.-UN relations. Calvin joined the foundation as chief operating officer in 2003, was promoted to CEO in 2009, and was named president and CEO in 2013. 

Prior to joining the UN Foundation, Calvin was president of the AOL Time Warner Foundation where she guided AOL Time Warner's philanthropic activities and was the chief architect of the company's corporate responsibility initiatives. She joined America Online in 1997 as senior vice president and chief communications officer, and was responsible for the company's brand, social responsibility and external relations.  

Before joining AOL, Calvin was a senior managing director at Hill and Knowlton, a global public relations company, where she led the U.S. media relations practice. For 12 years before that, she served as director of editorial administration for U.S. News & World Report, overseeing budget, personnel, innovation and strategy. From 1976 through 1984, Calvin was Sen. Gary Hart's press secretary in his U.S. Senate office and during his 1984 presidential campaign. She was one of the first women to hold that campaign title in the U.S. 

Throughout her career, Calvin has taken an active role in a range of philanthropic activities, which include serving on the boards of the International Women's Media Foundation, City Year, Internews, Share Our Strength, and the United Nations Association of the United States of America. In 2011, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appointed Calvin to the East-West Center Board of Governors.

Calvin earned a bachelor's degree in speech pathology/audiology from Purdue in 1971. She is the recipient of numerous awards for leadership and philanthropy. In 2011, Calvin was named one of Newsweek's "150 Women Who Rock the World," and in 2012, she was listed in Fast Company's "League of Extraordinary Women." Her innovative work in the philanthropy and international non-governmental organizations sector was featured by the New York Times in 2011. 

Calvin serves on the Purdue Foundation Development Council and was honored by Purdue in 2002 as a Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Liberal Arts.

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