Tonia Wellons

PRESIDENT AND CEO

Tonia Wellons is the President & CEO of the Greater Washington Community Foundation, the largest public foundation in the region with over $500 million in assets and $90 million in annual grants. With deep community development experience, Tonia leads a regional foundation with a 50-year history of mobilizing community resources and investing more than $1.8 billion to build equitable, just, and thriving communities.

Since being named CEO in April 2020, Tonia has worked with the Board of Trustees and staff to reimagine the strategic priorities of The Community Foundation. Under her leadership, The Community Foundation launched a bold 10-year strategic vision to help close the region’s racial wealth gap by directing capital, strengthening civic and philanthropic infrastructure, and centering economic justice.

Tonia is a dynamic and values-driven leader known for her ability to navigate seamlessly between visionary leadership, strategy, and fundraising. Since her tenure as CEO, The Community Foundation has grown from $331 million to $500 million in assets under management. Tonia has deep relationships across both grassroots and grasstops communities and is a trusted convener and coalition builder. Her leadership reflects a combination of on-the-ground insight and high-level influence, enabling The Community Foundation to respond with both urgency and intention to the region’s most pressing challenges and biggest opportunities. From instigating transformative initiatives like guaranteed income pilots and children’s savings programs to guiding major fundraising campaigns that expand The Community Foundation’s impact, Tonia consistently brings vision, discipline, and heart to her work

Tonia has more than 20 years of experience in public and private partnerships, financial access and inclusion, and international development. Prior to joining The Community Foundation, she served as a political appointee for the Obama Administration as head of global partnerships at the Peace Corps. Tonia was responsible for leading the agency’s relationships with other federal agencies, the private sector, international NGOs, and donors. Most notably, Tonia led bold cause-marketing partnerships at the Peace Corps for Let Girls Learn (an initiative of First Lady Michelle Obama). Tonia previously served as fund manager of a multi-donor initiative focused on financial access and inclusion at the World Bank Group. She also spent a significant part of her career working on USAID-funded capacity development initiatives during the immediate post-apartheid era in South Africa and the broader sub-Sahara region.

Tonia serves on the boards of Leadership Greater Washington, Words Beats & Life, CFLeads, and Bishop McNamara High School and the Board of Visitors for Howard University’s School of Education. She is a member of the Federal City Council, DC Interagency Council on Homelessness, and The Economic Club of Washington DC.

Tonia has been recognized by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the 2025 Most Powerful Women in Washington and by the Washington Business Journal as part of the Power 100 of 2025 and 2023 Women Who Mean Business. Named the Washington Business Journal’s 2020 Nonprofit Leader of the Year, Tonia was recognized for leading the region’s largest coordinated COVID-19 philanthropic response fund, working closely with regional foundation partners and local government advisers.

Tonia is a 20+ year resident of Prince George's County and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She has a master’s degree in Public Administration and International Development Policy from the University of Delaware, and a bachelor’s in Political Science from North Carolina A&T State University.