The Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation board has named Karla Twedt-Ball as the foundation’s new president and CEO.
The appointment is effective June 1, according to a GCRCF release.
Ms. Twedt-Ball has served in a variety of leadership roles at the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation over the last 16 years. She will be succeeding Les Garner, who announced his retirement in August 2022.
Mr. Garner has served as the GCRCF’s president and CEO since he joined the Foundation in 2010. He will remain in his position until early June.
“We feel very fortunate to have someone with Karla’s experience to step into this leadership position for Linn County,” said Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation board chair Diana Ledford. “Karla is a visionary leader with a passion for improving our communities. Her strong communication and strategy skills, relationships with donors and community leaders, as well as her leadership on boards of state and national philanthropic organizations, is impressive and is exactly what is needed for the future of the Community Foundation.”
The announcement signals a new era for the GCRCF, Ms. Twedt-Ball said.
“Community foundations exist at the intersection of donors, nonprofits, and community,” she noted. “We are a place where community transformation can happen as long as we listen to and are responsive to the people in our community. I look forward to leading these efforts and believe our possibilities are nearly boundless when we bring these activities together.”
Ms. Twedt-Ball has been with the Foundation since 2007. Since then, she has led the strategy of the GCRCF’s grantmaking and nonprofit capacity-building efforts in a variety of roles. She served as Interim president in 2009, and she has provided leadership on community collaborations and projects involving complex topics of broad importance where philanthropy has played a role.
She currently serves as senior vice president of programs and community investment at the Foundation, and will continue in this role during her transition to the role of president and CEO, effective June 1.
Ms. Twedt-Ball is an adjunct instructor in the School of Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Iowa. She serves on the board of the Iowa Council of Foundations, including as board chair in fiscal year 2021. She also serves on the board of The Funders Network, a national philanthropy serving organization that supports efforts to create communities and regions that are sustainable, prosperous, and just.
She has been honored by the Corridor Business Journal at the Women of Influence and Forty Under 40 recognition events, and is also a graduate of the Leadership for Five Seasons program.
Ms. Twedt-Ball has a master of public policy degree from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, and a bachelor of science degree in geography from the University of Iowa. Past positions include working at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research on a Chicago community policing evaluation project and serving as the executive director of Churches United in Cedar Rapids.
“I am very pleased to be passing the baton of leadership of this important organization to Karla,” Mr. Garner said. “I have been honored to serve the community alongside her during my tenure and I look forward to the energy she will bring to the organization. The Community Foundation is in good hands.”
