Kelly Lucas has served as President/CEO of Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County since 1996. The foundation’s mission is to support community development by building social capital, fostering strategic philanthropy, and investing in research and skill development. The foundation, in partnership with the Ford Foundation, earned a 2008 Council on Foundation’s Critical Impact Award for an integrated, grassroots approach to community economic development. She is the lead organizer of a new rural initiative to close the skills gap by aligning resources, strategies, capacity, policy and coordination across a regional workforce system – “Workforce Central” is one of two rural sites in the United States selected to participate in the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and a 2010 recipient of Social Innovation Funds. As a “Knight Community Information Challenge” participant, the foundation is also researching how and where local citizens get their news and creating a plan for disseminating community information that is transparent, broad-reaching and easily accessible. Lucas has served on state and national steering committees, including the Council on Foundation’s Community Leadership Team, Community Foundation Division of the Wisconsin Donors Forum and the National Taskforce on Community Leadership.