Judith Berry Griffin
President and Founder
Pathways to College

Judith Berry Griffin’s combined experience as an educational administrator and leader, consultant, author and lecturer led her to establish The Ophelia J. Berry Fund in 2003.  She is founding president of the Fund’s first program, Pathways to College. The program is a national after-school initiative to help high-potential students of color develop the critical thinking skills and habits of mind to make achieving a college education an attainable goal, thereby encouraging school-wide improvement and reform.

Since its founding in 1992, Pathways to College has served more than 2,100 students. Many of its graduates go on to selective four-year colleges such as Brown, Smith, Stanford, Hampshire and the University of Chicago.

Prior to her current role, Griffin served as national president of A Better Chance from 1983 to 2003.  There she led efforts that secured Oprah Winfrey as the organization’s national spokesperson, and established its multi-million dollar endowment.  Under Griffin’s direction A Better Chance was recognized by Worth magazine as one of America’s top 100 charities.

Previously, Griffin served in the U.S. Department of Education, first as executive assistant to the assistant secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education and then as head of the Department’s Teacher Centers program.  She has been a school principal and a visiting lecturer or faculty member at Manhattanville College, the Bank Street College of Education, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  She served two terms on the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation Board of Directors and after three terms of service was named a trustee emerita of Hampshire College.  She also served as a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

Griffin has written a number of articles and other publications on the education of disadvantaged students of color.  She is also the author of several books for children, the most recent of which, Phoebe and the General, was a nominee for the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award.

Griffin earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Chicago, which in 2001 awarded her its Professional Achievement Citation for her work in education.  She holds an additional graduate degree from Columbia University.