Protected: Vidya Krishnamurthy

Vidya Krishnamurthy is the chief communications officer and senior advisor to the president for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. She is responsible for conceptualizing, developing, and implementing communications strategies that help achieve the foundation’s institutional and programmatic objectives. A member of the foundation’s senior staff, she leads a team of professionals in the facilitation and enhancement of the work of programs, senior leadership, partners, and grantees through strategic counsel on communications grantmaking and a range of communications tactics, including digital content strategy, media relations, publications, and thought leadership.

She joined the foundation in 2015 after nearly a decade with the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., serving as its first-ever communications director. During that time, she helped the center significantly expand its U.S. and global audience and become one of the most trusted and widely cited sources of nonpartisan information about trends shaping America and the world. 

Her previous experience cuts across a wide swath of communications specialties, including issues management, media relations, and digital content strategy, with organizations from think tank/academic, corporate, labor, and education arenas. She has written and spoken about media policy, political reform, and strategic communications. She holds a master’s degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and international affairs at Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.