Barbara Picower

Barbara Picower - Outgoing President of the JPB Foundation

During her 12-year tenure as president and chair of the board of the JPB Foundation, Barbara Picower has directed more than $2.5 billion in grants to nationally recognized and emerging organizations. A founding donor of the Foundation, she is a passionate supporter of medical research and nonprofits that are working to build healthier and more sustainable communities in the U.S. In early 2024, she plans to step down as president and assume the role of president emerita.

In medical research, Barbara Picower and the Foundation fund several world-class scientists working to achieve important advances in diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. The Foundation is a longtime supporter of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory (PILM). Scientists at PILM are working to discover more about the brain mechanisms associated with learning, remembering, emotion, and consciousness. Their work also includes research on Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorders, and schizophrenia.

Under the direction of Barbara Picower, the Foundation supports work in democracy, economic justice, health equity, and the environment. The Foundation's joint Poverty & Environment Advisory Committee, which helps inform its grantmaking activities, includes respected leaders like Center on Budget and Policy Priorities founder Bob Greenstein as well as Harvard Law School Professor Alan Jenkins.

Beyond her leadership of the JPB Foundation, Barbara Picower is a member of the Board of Dean's Advisors at the Harvard School of Public Health and the board of directors for Living Cities, a nonprofit committed to closing racial income and wealth gaps in the U.S. She earned a master of arts in secondary education and history and a master of science in nutrition from New York University. She additionally holds a bachelor of arts in political science from Hofstra University.