Baylor alumna named CEO of Feed the Children

For someone who feels a personal mission to make the world a better place for children, there may be few better fits than Feed the Children, a global nonprofit which seeks to end childhood hunger. All of this made a significant opportunity at the organization just right for Emily Callahan (BA ’00), a Baylor alumna and longtime non-profit leader whose personal mission dovetailed with the organization she now leads.

For almost half a century, Feed the Children has worked to serve children and their families by offering food, household essentials, nutrition training, clean water programs, school supplies, and more. Callahan was named CEO of Feed the Children last fall after two decades of non-profit leadership at well-known organizations like Susan G. Komen and ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

At such impactful organizations, she built a reputation as a dynamic leader and formed a personal understanding of her own drive to create global movements — something she’ll do in her new role at Feed the Children as they embark on a strategic plan of global growth and increased service to children and families.

Long before her elevation to CEO, Emily was a Baylor student unsure of her path, but confident in her call to BU. A small-town Oklahoman, she felt led to go somewhere she knew no one — and a still, small voice pointed her to Baylor, where she eventually joined the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core. At Baylor, she worked constantly: campus involvement on Freshman Class Council and as president of her sorority, working as an intern in the Baylor Athletics Sports Information Office, leading tours for Undergraduate Admissions, and eventually working on marketing for the Heart of Texas Fair & Rodeo.

Those marketing experiences blossomed into a full-time job at Susan G. Komen. There, she eventually was elevated to senior vice president of marketing. Next came St. Jude’s, which has been recognized as America’s most trusted brand. When the opportunity to lead Feed the Children came along after nearly 20 years at these organizations, she was ready to heed the call.

“I am pinching myself that I have the opportunity here to lead a global movement and make the world a better place,” Callahan says. “To have been able to do work that is connected to meeting a need, at Susan G. Komen and ALSAC and now here, is really the honor of a lifetime. To unite individuals and foundations to come together and fulfill needs for children and families with hunger — this is a problem I believe we can solve, and that truly inspires me.”

Sic ’em, Emily Callahan!