Dede McClure

program officer

Dede McClure has extensive experience in operations and management. Her career spans three decades serving both the private and nonprofit sectors. Having moved from Washington DC in 2011, Dede went to work with both Kid Pan Alley and the Headwaters Foundation in Rappahannock County. Prior to the very good decision to leave DC, Dede served as Vice President of Operations/Chief of Staff for Sightline Marketing, a communications and marketing firm. Sightline Marketing was chosen by the Washington Business Journal as one of its “50 Best Places to Work”.  Concurrently with her work with Sightline marketing, Dede was deeply involved in charter school growth in Washington DC. She managed the business and development office at the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Public Charter School. Before that, she served as Executive Director for the Greater Washington Hospitality Foundation, whose mission was to develop and open the Marriott Hospitality Public Charter High School, the nation’s first charter school devoted to academic excellence and career development in the dynamic field of hospitality. She was associate director for FOCUS, a D.C. advocacy organization with national reach in supporting the role of choice in public education. Dede served on the board of the TurnFirst Foundation, an organization she helped found that is dedicated to helping those newly diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She is currently, a member of the Red Sweater Project Advisory Board, a secondary school in the Mungare district of Tanzania. Dede was educated at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of Paris, Sorbonne.