Kristin Gilliss
As a Principal of the Portfolio Team, Kristin Gilliss manages a variety of key relationships with funded social entrepreneurs, domain experts, policy makers, corporate partners and co-funders. Kristin develops and structures funding opportunities to drive large scale change in the focus areas of the foundation.
Prior to joining Skoll, Kristin’s career spanned the business, government, and social change sectors. Most recently, Kristin was Program Finance Officer at the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation where she was primarily engaged with the foundation’s Andes-Amazon Initiative to secure the climate function and representative biodiversity of the Amazon Basin. Kristin’s background also includes work experience with the U.S. National Park Service, Low Income Investment Fund, and Upwardly Global–a San Francisco-based nonprofit that helps highly-skilled immigrants reclaim their professional careers in the United States– for which she co-launched the New York office in 2006. She served in the US Peace Corps as a Business Advising Volunteer in the Philippines and a Crisis Corps Volunteer for FEMA in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Before serving in the Peace Corps, Kristin executed mergers and acquisitions for environmental services companies as a Senior Analyst in investment banking at Raymond James Financial.
Kristin graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an AB in English & American Literature and Language. She holds an MPA in Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy with an international development specialization from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, where she was a Dean’s Scholar.