Bryna Lipper

Bryna Lipper has held leadership roles in government, nonprofit, and private sector organizations dedicated to civic, social, cultural, and environmental progress. Bryna recently served as the CEO of the Humboldt Area + Wild Rivers Community Foundation, focused on a region in California notable for biodiversity, rural leadership, and Native American cultures. There, she led a major reorganization and launched several transformational programs including the Climate and Community Resilience Hub and the Klamath River Fund.    

Previously, Bryna was a co-founder and senior vice president for 100 Resilient Cities by the Rockefeller Foundation, created to enable cities to plan for and adapt to 21st century challenges. She led the formation of its urban resilience practice, global network, and public sector relationships. During her tenure, the work helped reshape the policies, governance, and practices of cities in 47 nations around the world. 

She also served as the acting director of philanthropic research and initiatives for the Office for International and Philanthropic Innovation at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where she led strategies to spur philanthropic partnerships, promote policy innovation, increase aligned investments, and conduct comparative international research.   

Her experience also includes roles as vice president for marketing, communications, and government affairs at the National Building Museum; founding advisor to the Global Studio, an international organization encouraging designers to serve in vulnerable communities; and vice president at a creative agency.  

Bryna is a doctoral candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, where she researches the relationships between local and national policy, power building, and ecological stewardship. She holds a Master of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Design in Architecture from the University of Sydney in Australia. She was named a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University and a Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities PLACES Fellow. She was awarded the Advancement for Architecture prize in Australia.  

She currently serves on the board of directors for Northern California Grantmakers and the inter-university Pacific Offshore Wind Consortium Advisory Committee. Bryna routinely advises and speaks about community and climate resilience, civic engagement, policy innovation, and philanthropic program design.