Alice Cain

Activist, Change Agent, Connector, Global soul, Philanthropist, Public servant, World traveler

Highlights: Activist —> Congressional staffer —> nonprofit executive —> state legislator —> philanthropic leader / donor advisor, all focused on improving education and opportunity The Honorable Alice Johnson Cain is Executive Director of The Moriah Fund, a private foundation dedicated to promoting human rights and social justice in the U.S. and around the world, with a focus on democracy, education, civil society in Israel, women’s rights, and racial justice. Through the Black Voices for Black Justice Fund, which she co-founded in 2020, Alice works to elevate and amplify the voices of visionary Black leaders who are on the front lines of the racial justice movement. As Founding Board Member and Treasurer of Strong Future Maryland, Alice works to help Maryland recover from the pandemic as well as the ongoing crisis of systemic racism. Elected to the Maryland General Assembly in 2018, Alice represented Annapolis and Edgewater in the House of Delegates for two legislative sessions. She was the chief sponsor of several new laws and amendments that will improve education and protect the environment for future generations. Appointed by the Speaker to chair a capital budget subcommittee, her leadership culminated in an unprecedented level of bipartisan agreement to allocate additional state resources in support of underserved children, mental health, the environment, and the arts. Alice was the longtime chief education policy advisor to Chairman George Miller (D-CA) on the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and Labor, serving during a number of the committee’s most consequential years and helping craft some of its most far-reaching legislation, including the $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Other experience includes nearly a decade as Executive Vice President of Teach Plus; and key policy roles for the Children's Defense Fund, the National Institute for Literacy and Senator Paul Simon (D-IL). In 1995, Alice and her Republican counterpart in the Senate launched the Everybody Wins DC program, which for over 25 years has provided opportunities for hundreds of Members of Congress and Congressional staffers to spend their lunch hours reading with an underserved child at a public elementary school. Alice was awarded a year-long research fellowship in New Zealand through the Fulbright Program and was an Aspen Institute Senior Congressional Staff Fellow. Her volunteer work includes many years as a literacy tutor for both children and adults, including immigrants and refugees from around the world, and service on the boards of the Academy of Hope, Laubach Literacy International and the Success for All Foundation. Alice has served as a peer reviewer for organizations that include the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program, Generation Hope, Kellogg Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and U.S. Department of Education.

1) democracy and human rights 2) educational equity / world-class education for all 3) supporting and mentoring women who aspire to leadership roles 4) travel, including living abroad whenever I can!

Philanthropy will fulfill its potential and purpose when the people closest to a problem define both the problem AND the solutions.

Advocacy, public policy, trust-based philanthropy (developing that expertise)

helping dogs who have been traumatized learn to trust humans again