Jo Kwong serves as director of economic opportunity programs at The Philanthropy Roundtable.
Prior to joining the Roundtable, Jo worked at the Institute for Humane Studies, the Capital Research Center, and the Property and Environment Research Center, where she frequently combined explorations of philanthropy and markets. Some of her publications in this field include “Philanthropy and Environmentalism” (Capital Research Center, 1987), “Corporate Donors Embrace Free-Market Environmentalism” (Wall Street Journal, 1988); “Environmental Giving Sourcebook for Trust Officers: A Private Property Rights/Free Enterprise Approach” (Institute for Humane Studies, 1988); and Protecting the Environment: Old Rhetoric, New Imperatives (Capital Research Center, 1990), which examined the role of funders in the development of the environmental movement. Jo was also an early contributor to The Philanthropy Roundtable’s magazine, Philanthropy, with the 1993 article, “Creating Eco-Kids.”
Through her work at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation from 1990 to 2010, Jo developed a network of public policy think tanks around the world that embrace individual responsibility and opportunity. As Atlas’s vice president of institute relations, she advised and counseled think tank leaders in nonprofit development, organization, and management.
Jo received her Ph.D. in natural resource economics from the University of Michigan and her Sc.B. in biology from Brown University.