Lauren A. Segal, President & CEO

Scholarship America welcomed Lauren Segal as its President & CEO in April 2010. Ms. Segal came to Scholarship America with 30 years of nonprofit sector experience, most notably as president and chief executive officer of Greater Twin Cities (MN) United Way, the second largest organization of its kind in the country.

Since joining Scholarship America, Ms. Segal has successfully led the board and staff in a long-range strategic planning process that resulted in a plan that articulates measurable impact and expands the organization’s mission to helping students complete their degrees with more manageable debt. In addition, she has led Scholarship America’s efforts to launch the Dream Award, a national scholarship program that attracted the support of former news anchor and talk show host, Katie Couric, who donated sales of her recent book, The Best Advice I Ever Got, to this new national program. Ms. Segal has led her team in securing and deepening relationships with national funders, launched major technology upgrade initiatives and a new
strategic marketing function, and defined a vision for the modernization of Scholarship America’s flagship program, Dollars for Scholars. In 2012, Ms. Segal helped bring together Scholarship America and Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation, who provided a grant to Scholarship America’s Dreamkeepers program to expand to the Wisconsin Technical College System emergency financial assistance to students.

As CEO of Greater Twin Cities United Way, Ms. Segal became known as a collaborative and transformational leader with great focus. Under her leadership,
Greater Twin Cities United Way redefined its business model from a broad-based
funder of nonprofit agencies to an organization driven by a specific set of priorities
aimed at creating measurable impact for people in poverty in the Twin Cities region. She also implemented United Way’s role as a convener and leader working with other organizations, across sectors, to solve large-scale community problems like hunger and disaster relief.

Ms. Segal received a bachelor of science in business management from Guilford
College in Greensboro, N.C. She has served on a variety of nonprofit boards, including the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, United Ways of Minnesota, and The Itasca Project. Also, Ms. Segal served on the Governor’s Ending Long Term Homelessness Advisory Council and was an instructor for the Center for Community Leadership. Segal has received numerous awards, including The Business Journal’s “25 Women to Watch” in 2004. Ms. Segal lives in the Saint Paul area with her husband, Rich, and their four dogs.