Caroline Altman Smith is deputy director of The Kresge Foundation’s Education Program. She supports the team’s domestic grantmaking, which funds higher education institutions and national nonprofit organizations that work to help more underserved students enter and succeed in postsecondary education.

Before joining Kresge in 2008, Caroline served for five years as a program officer at the Lumina Foundation in Indianapolis where she worked to create opportunities for low-income, minority and first-generation students to enter college and complete their undergraduate degrees.

Caroline earned a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from the University of Virginia. In 2022, Caroline received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, where she holds a master’s degree in philanthropic studies and a certificate in nonprofit management.

She is a previous Crain’s Detroit Business “40 Under 40” honoree, an instructor for The Grantmaking School at Grand Valley State University, previously chaired the Grantmakers for Education and Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy boards, and currently serves on the boards of the National College Attainment Network, the National Council of Nonprofits, the Howard University School of Social Work and the Center for Effective Philanthropy.

Photo: Douglas Schaible