Alison Bernstein

Bio

Alison R. Bernstein summarizes her feelings about being a professional philanthropist: “It's wonderful to take the money of a person whose social values I wouldn't have supported and then use it in a way that's most effective for social justice.”

As with many of the women in the Jewish Women in America series, Ms. Bernstein credits her parents with instilling her passionate interest in social justice. Her mother, the daughter of orthodox Jews, was a school teacher and her father, who began his career as a comic book writer, was a producer of classical music concerts. “Jackie Robinson was a hero in my family,” she says.

Her credo, that “everyone has a right to express themselves” and her belief in the importance of cultural expression being handed down from generation to generation, is a personal philosophy that she has carried with her as author, professor, and now as one who helps set policy at The Ford Foundation.

Bernstein graduated from Vassar College and then received an M.A. and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. She began her career as an instructor in the Department of Education at Staten Island Community College in the early 1970s and then became the Director of Baccalaureate Programs at City University of New York (CUNY) at the dawn of open admissions. From there she went to work for the Foundation for Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), helping to improve access to community colleges. While there her interest in women's and gender studies peaked. Through FIPSE, she met Marilyn Chamberlin of The Ford Foundation and, when Chamberlin retired, Bernstein was selected to take her place.

She joined the Ford Foundation in 1982 as a program officer, reviewing grant requests. She left to become Associate Dean of Faculty at Princeton University, returning to the Ford Foundation in 1992. From then to 1996, she served as Director of the Education and Culture Program and in 1996 she was appointed Vice President for the Education, Media, Arts and Culture Program, later renamed the Knowledge, Creativity and Freedom Program.

Bernstein says that the Ford Foundation, the only private foundation with foreign offices in over thirty countries, cares deeply about issues of social justice and equality. The funds are directed in three main channels: alleviating poverty, which addresses economic inequality (such as lack of housing); peace and social justice, focusing on human rights; and education, arts, culture, media, religion and sexuality, which she calls the “soul” of the Foundation. In the third area of policy which Bernstein directs, there is particular emphasis on promoting open airways through public affairs media; the health and vitality of arts and culture, which also becomes an economic base in large cities; the affordability of higher education; and the study of the resurgence of spiritualism and religious values.

Alison Bernstein is the author of three books: American Indians and World War II: Towards a New Era in Indian Affairs (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1991; paperback, 1999); The Impersonal Campus with Virginia B. Smith (Jossey-Bass, 1979); and Melting Pots and Rainbow Nations: Conversations on Difference in the U.S. and South Africa with Jacklyn Cock (Univ. Of Illinois Press, 2002).

She has authored numerous articles on issues related to access to higher education, diversity on campus and the impact of women's studies. She serves on the Board of Advisors of the National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Institution, and as Presidential Advisory Board Member on Tribal Colleges and Universities.

Alison Bernstein believes that “you can't be a philanthropist and not have hope, because people do have the capacity to change their circumstances.”

Appearances on CUNY TV

Jewish Women in America

Light on a Hill