About Noorain Khan

Noorain Khan is a dynamic leader, executive, and philanthropic strategist who brings a powerful blend of acumen and empathy to her work across civil rights, law, policy, women’s leadership, and the arts. Over her career, she has propelled initiatives that expand opportunities, shape culture, and catalyze positive change.

Noorain is Chief Innovation Officer of the Ford Foundation, where she drives Ford's innovation strategy and commitment to accelerating the foundation and social sector’s impact. She returned to Ford after serving as a philanthropic strategist for private clients and as a Senior Advisor at the investment firm XN.

Noorain previously spent nearly a decade at the Ford Foundation, where she built and led the first-ever discretionary program team under President Darren Walker. She also launched Ford’s work in disability rights, growing it into the largest private funder of disability rights in the world. Noorain co-founded and incubated pioneering sector-wide efforts such as the Disability & Philanthropy Forum and the Disability Inclusion Fund.

Noorain also helped spearhead Ford’s historic $1 billion social bond effort during the COVID-19 crisis. and she is the subject of a Harvard Law School case study on public sector leadership.

In 2023, Noorain was elected the National President of Girl Scouts of the USA, where she presides over 1.8 million members and the National Board of Directors and has led historic efforts in strategy, transformation, governance, sustainable revenue, and inclusion and belonging

She earned a JD from Yale Law School as a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow, an MPhil in Migration Studies from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and a BA from Rice University.

Noorain began her career as an attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York and was previously a Senior Policy Advisor at the White House and Chief of Staff at Teach for All. She has served on the boards of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars and Pillars Fund, and she is the recipient of the George Parkin Service Award for outstanding contributions to the Rhodes Trust. Her monthly Substack, Mission Critical, about purpose-led professions reaches over 20,000 people. She lives with her husband and two children in Brooklyn, NY.