Angela Seaworth, Ph.D.

Angela Seaworth, Ph.D., is the incoming executive director of the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy. Her tenure begins in January 2027.

Angela is a nationally recognized leader in philanthropy, nonprofit management, and fundraising with more than 25 years of executive, academic, and consulting experience. Throughout her career, she has focused on translating research into practical tools that strengthen nonprofit organizations and inform philanthropic practice, by focusing on governance, organizational leadership, fundraising, strategy, and capacity building.

Earlier in her career, Angela founded Rice University’s Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership (CPNL). Under her leadership, the center expanded from a local initiative to serving nonprofit professionals across 39 states and five countries while significantly increasing enrollment and launching nationally recognized certificate programs. As an Instructional Associate Professor at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service most recently, she taught graduate courses in nonprofit leadership, human capital, fundraising, and grants management, while leading a summer internship program and designing custom philanthropy education for University Research and Development operations. She also taught graduate-level Fund Development for Nonprofits at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business and Nonprofit Strategy for the University of California-Irvine and was appointed to the UC-Irvine Nonprofit Management Program Advisory Committee.

Through her consulting with Seaworth Nonprofit Solutions, Angela has advised foundations, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and faith-based organizations on governance, strategic planning, fundraising strategy, and capacity building. Over the past decade, she designed and led comprehensive capacity-building initiatives serving rural and regional nonprofit ecosystems by developing partnerships with private, education, and community foundations throughout Texas.

As an Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive (ACFRE), Angela has raised approximately $70 million and is committed to advancing the fundraising profession. She has held numerous national leadership roles with the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and currently serves on the AFP Research Council, as a juror for the Skystone Ryan Book Prize, and supports the Fundraising Effectiveness Project. She has also served as a Subject Matter Expert for CFRE International, has written questions for both fundraising certification exams, and contributed more than 65 years of combined service on nonprofit boards.

Angela has delivered more than 140 invited presentations and her work has been published in Giving USA, The Nonprofit Times, Advancing Philanthropy, and the Continuing Higher Education Review, with media appearances in Forbes, The Houston Chronicle, Houston Public Media KUHF, Houston PBS, Fox 26 News Houston, KBTX, Chinese Xinhua News Agency Houston Bureau, and the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund.

Angela earned a Ph.D. in Philanthropic Studies from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Indiana University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Denison University. She remains actively engaged with the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (NACC), and the Association of Fundraising Professionals.