Anne Wilson

Anne Wilson is the Chief Executive Officer of the United Way of the Bay Area (UWBA). She joined the organization 24 years ago. Before being named the first woman leader of the UWBA in July 2000, Anne was the Executive Vice President and Director of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society, in which position she was responsible for directing all major gifts and leadership giving programs for the United Way. Other leadership positions held were Executive Vice President and Director of County Leadership, Senior Vice President for Strategic Development, Communications Director, and Director of Special Projects.

During her tenure as CEO, Anne has driven efforts to reshape the organization into an aggressive collaborator with philanthropic, business, community, and government leaders, positioning the United Way as the regional expert on achieving a deep and lasting impact on the Bay Area’s most pressing social issues: self-sufficiency, education, health, and safe communities.

“United Way of the Bay Area should be the first place people turn to find out what really works in their cities and neighborhoods—whether we’re talking about moving families from welfare to work, improving the grade point averages of low performing students in low-income neighborhoods, ensuring that everyone has access to health care, or keeping our schools safe for our children,” Anne said. “We are a place of innovation and creativity.”

Anne has a Master’s of Social Welfare degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University. She lives in San Rafael, California, with her husband Richard Cohn and their two young children.