Vidya Krishnamurthy

Vidya Krishnamurthy is chief communications officer and senior adviser to the president. In this role, she oversees strategic communications in support of the foundation’s charitable goals, including leadership and counsel on communications-related grantmaking and development and execution of communications tactics, including thought leadership, events and media relations, digital strategy, and publications. She also oversees internal organization learning and chairs the foundation’s learning council.

She joined the foundation in 2015 after nearly a decade with the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., serving as its first-ever communications director. During that time, she helped the center significantly expand its U.S. and global audience and become one of the most trusted and widely cited sources of nonpartisan information about trends shaping America and the world.

Her previous experience cuts across a wide swath of communications specialties, including issues management, media relations and digital content strategy, with organizations from think tank/academic, corporate, labor and education arenas. She serves on the board of the Communications Network, the leading community of social sector communicators; is a member of ColorComm, an association of women in color in communications; and has written and spoken about media policy, political reform and strategic communications. She holds a master’s degree in public affairs from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Born in Lusaka, Zambia, she is an American immigrant of Indian origin. She lives with her husband and two children in the Bay Area.