“Foundations” is an series of informal question-and-answer sessions with employees and others affiliated with The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to give them an opportunity to explain their work. Linda Frey is an officer with the Foundation’s Global Development Program. Before joining the Foundation, she managed a variety of democracy-building projects in Latin America …

There was a time when getting a grant from the Philadelphia Foundation was slow and onerous. They were awarded just twice a year, were usually small, and those applying were never quite sure they had the foundation staff’s attention. Then there was the six-month wait for an answer. While applicants politely seethed, the Foundation never …

For Antonio “Toño” Zúñiga, the nightmare began on the morning of December 12, 2005. Walking to the Mexico City plaza where he sold used video games, Zúñiga was arrested by a trio of police detectives and swept into their car. Despite the absence of physical evidence and an airtight alibi, he was charged with and …

No subject is more crucial to the future of California than fixing its flagging public schools. Yet clear, unbiased analysis about the issues facing educators and policy makers is increasingly hard to find. Falling readership has left newspapers short of education writers, and interest groups have their own agendas. For a consistent source of nuanced …

“Foundations” is an occasional series of informal question-and-answer sessions with employees and others affiliated with The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to give them an opportunity to explain their work. Vic Vuchic is an associate officer with the Foundation’s Education Program, where he works in its Open Educational Resources Initiative. For eight years before joining …

An international campaign to preserve Canada’s vast Boreal forests achieved one of its greatest successes this summer with the announcement that Ontario’s provincial government plans to protect more than 55 million acres-an area roughly the size of Utah-from mining and development. This announcement by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty marks one of the largest conservation deals …

To the casual observer, this sunny, windswept corner of Bayview-Hunters Point seems like any other neighborhood in San Francisco, with a nearby espresso shop hinting at gentrification and the city’s signature hills rising in the distance. There’s no way to tell that the Third Street Youth Center & Clinic, which presides on this corner, was …

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Tom Steinbach, a program officer in The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Environment Program, has been named its new director. In addition, Foundation Vice President Susan Bell has been named a Senior Fellow for Energy and Climate. Bell will direct a portfolio of environmental grants in the United States, Europe, China, …

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Lawrence Mendenhall, who helped direct legal affairs at The Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia, will join The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation as its first in-house general counsel. Mendenhall, the deputy director of legal affairs at The Pew Charitable Trusts, has worked there since 1999, when he joined as a legal …

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Barbara Chow, a domestic policy expert with broad government experience, will join The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation as director of its Education Program. Chow, who currently serves as policy director for the Budget Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, will replace Marshall Smith, whose term with the Foundation ends …