Cinny Kennard

Cinny Kennard has spent her career in executive leadership advancing the public good, bridging journalism, philanthropy, and civic contributions to strengthen communities and amplify voices that inspire change.

An award-winning journalist and former CBS News correspondent, Kennard reported from Los Angeles, London, and Moscow, earning the DuPont Columbia University Award for her coverage of the Persian Gulf War. She went on to help shape some of the nation's most influential media and cultural institutions. As the founding managing director of NPR West, she expanded NPR's reach and storytelling capacity across the West Coast. Later, as senior vice president of programming at the Smithsonian Institution, she led global partnerships and helped bring the Smithsonian's mission of discovery and learning to new audiences worldwide.

A longtime trusted steward of Wallis Annenberg's philanthropic legacy, Kennard played a key role in transforming The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands into a hub for diplomacy bringing President Barack Obama and China’s President Xi Jinping to Sunnylands for a "Shirtsleeves Summit" and served as an executive director of the Annenberg Foundation for over a decade. Today, she is President of the Wallis Annenberg Legacy Foundation, helping to guide Foundation's work to advance the causes Wallis championed. She is also the Chair of the Advisory Board of the University of Southern California's Center of Philanthropy and Public Policy, and she is currently working on a book on Women and Philanthropy.