Managing in Turbulent Times: Emerging Leaders in Public Health

Faculty and Staff

Barbara SabolBarbara Sabol
Program Director
W. K. Kellogg Foundation

 

Ms. Sabol is a program director in health at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Ms. Sabol develops and reviews programming priorities and recommends proposals for funding. She also assists the vice president in implementing health goals and strategies.

Before joining the Foundation, Ms. Sabol was president and CEO of NorthStar Group in Washington D.C. She also was commissioner for New York City 's Human Resources Administration serving more than one million New Yorkers, managing a budget of more than $ 15 billion and over 15,000 employees. In that position, she was responsible for the programs and policies in welfare, Medicaid, child welfare, and services for homeless adults and families.

Ms. Sabol is a registered nurse with management skills in operation, budget, program, and policy development. She has held appointments in government as a policymaker, manager, and cabinet officer. She has served on the Board of Directors for the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation, the largest public hospital system in the nation. Sabol gained national recognition for going underground as a welfare recipient to experience the system she administered from the client's point of view.

She holds a master's degree in counseling and guidance and a bachelor's degree in psychology, both from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She received her registered nurse certification from Kansas City General Hospital and Medical Center.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 "to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations." Its programming activities center around the common vision of a world in which each person has a sense of worth; accepts responsibility for self, family, community, and societal well-being; and has the capacity to be productive, and to help create nurturing families, responsive institutions, and healthy communities.

To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to exploring learning opportunities in leadership; information and communication technology; capitalizing on diversity; and social and economic community development. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe.