Lisa Verhovek joined the Gates Foundation in 2008 as its Community Relations Manager. Prior to this, she served as Communications Director at Philanthropy Northwest, a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to providing support, resources and networking for philanthropic organizations across six states. Earlier in her career, Lisa worked at Stanford University as the coordinator of STARTS (Student Arts at Stanford), and later at the Japan Society in New York City following three years of teaching and editing English in Japan and China. Lisa has a Master’s degree in anthropology from State University of New York at Albany, and a B.S. in Biology from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo.