Patricia Stonesifer
- Place of Birth: Indianapolis, USA
- Industry: Technology
Early life and Education
Patricia ‘Patty’ Stonesifer (née Quigley) was born in 1956, the sixth of nine children into a Roman Catholic family. Her father was a car salesman, and her mother worked as a physical therapist. The couple also took in foster children, encouraged volunteering as a core value for their family, and started a food-for-the-poor program in their hometown of Indianapolis.
After graduating from high school, Stonesifer went to Butler University, but terminated her studies to get married. She enrolled again at Indiana University where she graduated in 1982 with a BA in General Studies. Her first professional roles were as technical writer and then editor for a small computer book publisher in Indianapolis.
Road to success
Stonesifer spent twenty years working at for-profit technology companies, including as a consultant to DreamWorks SKG and at Microsoft where she held various vice president positions. In July 1996, Time magazine named her one of the 25 Most Influential People in America. By the time she left Microsoft in 1997, she was the highest-ranking woman in the corporation, in her final role as Senior Vice President and leader of the consumer and interactive products division.
Philanthropy
In 1997 Stonesifer made a dramatic career pivot, moving to the non-profit sector to begin her philanthropic work. She joined Bill and Melinda Gates to launch the Gates Library Foundation, which subsequently merged in 2000 with the William H. Gates Foundation to create the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Stonesifer served initially as volunteer CEO and then as President, managing an endowment of $39 billion to fund and support incentives and organizations that improve the health and well-being of vulnerable populations around the world. Under Stonesifer’s guidance, the foundation grew to be the world’s largest philanthropic organization, employing 500 employees by the time she stepped down in 2008.
Stonesifer held the position of Chair of the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents until 2013 when she became President and CEO of Martha’s Table, the Washington D.C. frontline food pantry and family-services organization. Under her leadership, the small local charity doubled its budget and fleet of distribution vans, created 53 free monthly pop-up food markets aimed at providing fresh produce to disadvantaged communities, and moved to a new state-of-the-art $20 million facility. The space houses a school and a vegetable garden, further increasing access to quality education and food, health services, and support for the most underprivileged local communities. Stonesifer retired from Martha’s Table in 2019.
Projects and organizations Patty Stonesifer supports
Stonesifer continues to donate time and resources to a number of non-profit organizations working to improve social justice. She serves on the boards of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Center for Global Development, the Rockefeller Foundation, America Achieves and TheDream.US. She is a member of the executive committee of Raise DC, is a Hope Street Group advisor and serves as Chair for the Co-Impact Board.
