We are delighted to announce the hiring of D’Lynn Jacobs as Open Horizon’s inaugural Executive Director! Open Horizon is an Alexandria, VA-based family foundation.

We are committed to improving communities and individual lives through expanding opportunities, experiential learning, capacity building, and policy change. In the role of Executive Director, D’Lynn will work to ensure the fulfillment of Open Horizon’s mission during our next phase of growth.

As we embark on our next chapter as a foundation, the hiring of an Executive Director with D’Lynn’s experience and expertise is a pivotal move for us. D’Lynn comes to us from the Peace Corps, where she most recently served as Chief of Projects, Training, and Evaluation. Prior to that, she served as Director of Programming and Training, as well as Acting Country Director, for Peace Corps Vanuatu in the South Pacific where she supported program participants, managed local staff, and guided intergovernmental relations.

D’Lynn’s diverse range of experience includes consulting, curriculum design, coaching and facilitation, school administration, and service on nonprofit boards including Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and currently Friends of Malawi.

D’Lynn is a proud graduate of Spelman College, a Historical Black College (HBCU) in Atlanta, with a BA in Women and Gender Studies. She also holds an MA in Gender and Cultural Studies and an MS in Communications Management from Simmons University in Boston.

Open Horizon co-founder Hershel Kleinberg says, “In our mission to provide individuals opportunities to excel where they may not otherwise have them, we are thrilled to bring on a leader as creative, responsive, and people-centered as D’Lynn Jacobs.”

Co-founder Lisa Cohen adds, “With Open Horizon starting to define itself, not only by funding nonprofit partners but by convening and supporting leaders in unique ways, as well as offering leading-edge programming and fellowships, the foundation needs a leader who is both visionary and able to deliver. We are confident that having an Executive Director like D’Lynn, with expertise in capacity building, transformational learning, and change management, we have found the leader who can bring Open Horizon into its next phase of work.”

D’Lynn Jacobs, Open Horizon’s new leader, shares, “The hope that all individuals and communities have access to an open horizon, where they can imagine endless opportunities, is consistently woven into my work. Open Horizon’s practices and principles, as well as its commitment to focusing on the wants and needs of community partners, being explicitly anti-racist, identity-affirming, and pro-choice, align beautifully with my core values and leadership philosophy and inform my embracing the role of Executive Director.”

The power of addressing issues at their intersections is clear in the approach Open Horizon has taken in directing funding to the people and communities that need it the most. I am most excited to connect with partners to learn about the areas we have effectively supported, as well as opportunities for emerging visions. Part of my innate purpose in life has been to help others see, achieve, and evolve their gifts by accessing a deeper understanding of themselves in their relationship with others. To do this with Open Horizon, leading the foundation into the next phase, will be an honor.”

Please join us in welcoming D’Lynn to Open Horizon.