Deborah Kong is a Children and Families program officer at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. She supports grantmaking for the Foundation’s work to address the crucial, interconnected issues that matter most to families – maternal and child development, housing stability, and healthy environments. She focuses on policy and strengthening systems in California.
Before joining the Foundation, she spent over two decades advocating for children and families often left out of public policy. As Executive Director of Early Edge California, she led statewide early learning policy and advocacy work and served on the state Assembly Blue Ribbon Commission on Early Childhood Education. Before working at Early Edge, Deb was a journalist for 15 years at media outlets including the Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe.
Deb holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California at Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Los Angeles, with a specialization in Asian American Studies.
Outside of work, Deb is a swimmer, a baker, and an Oakland middle school volunteer.