Denise Callahan named director of Scholarship Programs

November 26, 2012: Denise Callahan knows what it’s like to need help to go to school. A first-generation college graduate from Baker City, “I couldn’t have gone to college without the generous scholarship support from people who I often had never met,” she says.

Callahan is putting that experience to good use in her new position as The Ford Family Foundation’s director of Scholarship Programs, which she began in November. “To have the opportunity to be a part of the ‘giving’ side of college access is a way of acting on something that is very personal to me,” she says.

Callahan comes to The Ford Family Foundation from her alma mater, Willamette University in Salem, where she served in various leadership positions. Her most recent role was as senior director of alumni and parent relations.

She holds bachelor degrees in English and Spanish as well as an MBA focused on organizational efficiency and design from Willamette University. She supports the Liberty House Child Abuse Assessment Center, serves on the board of directors for the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education District VIII and the Atkinson Graduate School of Management advisory board. 

Callahan is based in The Ford Family Foundation’s office in Eugene, where the scholarship programs are administered. Five programs have more than 1,000 active college students and 2,800 alumni, with funding of $11 million for scholarships projected for the 2012-13 school year.