President and CEO - Noreen Springstead

Noreen Springstead is the President and CEO of Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) and has more than three decades of experience in the hunger space. Noreen is focused on expanding PHA’s mission of transforming the food landscape and pushing forward PHA’s goal of adding 100 million additional servings of vegetables, fruits, and beans to the marketplace around the country by 2025.

Noreen comes to PHA after serving as the Executive Director of WhyHunger—a 47 year-old global organization working in over 30 countries to end hunger and advance the human right to nutritious food, by providing critical resources to support grassroots movements and fuel community solutions rooted in social, environmental, racial and economic justice.

At WhyHunger, Noreen guided the organization’s philanthropic vision of solving the hunger crisis, seeking to implement systemic change to tackle the root cause of hunger, and building social justice for all. Noreen’s vision shaped WhyHunger’s programmatic, philanthropic, and marketing strategies.

Under Noreen’s direction, WhyHunger established successful partnerships with diverse companies such as Hard Rock International, Albertsons, Audacy New York, SiriusXM, ASCAP, and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition among others. As part of WhyHunger’s signature program Artists Against Hunger & Poverty, Noreen built long-term relationships with notable artists including Bruce Springsteen, Yoko Ono Lennon, Carlos Santana, their management and record labels, resulting in millions of dollars of support for WhyHunger and its community-based partners.

Noreen is frequently called upon as a thought leader to discuss the hunger crisis and was named one of the most powerful female change makers by SHAPE magazine in 2019 and a Notable Non-Profit leader by CRAIN’S New York Business in 2021. Noreen uses her platform to challenge the dominant narrative about hunger and its solutions and has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Fast Company, WCBS Newsradio 880 and The Record among other outlets.

Noreen started with WhyHunger in 1992 as a front desk assistant and quickly worked up the ranks. Noreen is a graduate of Rutgers University and has a BA in Political Science. A lifelong leader and learner, Noreen completed the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education Course Leadership, Organizing and Action and a course at the University of Notre Dame Non-Profit Business Excellence Continuing Education Program.