Anna Cruz (she/her/hers) is managing director of Strategic Learning, Research and Evaluation at The Kresge Foundation. In her role, Anna leads the foundation’s commitment to advancing a culture of learning and curiosity and connecting learning with action to advance equity. She works with Kresge’s program and practice teams to review strategies, codify learnings and develop evaluative approaches for their work. She joined the foundation in 2018.

Previously, Anna served as a strategy, research and evaluation consultant, supporting foundations and other social-sector clients to evaluate the impact of their efforts and develop strategic community change efforts. She began her career providing direct legal services to historically marginalized communities at the Public Law Center in Santa Ana, California.

Anna earned a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from Vanguard University of Southern California and a master’s degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Oregon, where she conducted ethnographic research in her native state of Oaxaca, Mexico on the impacts of indigenous-led intersectional social movements.

A PLACES 2020 Fellow, Anna is also a founding member and the co-chair for the Latinx Affinity Network through the Council of Michigan Foundations. She is an instructor at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University.