CDC Foundation Names Two New Associate Vice Presidents

ATLANTA – Charles Stokes, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation, today announced the promotions of Laura Angel to associate vice president for advancement and Linda McGehee, Ph.D., R.N., to associate vice president for programs.

In Angel’s new role, she implements all fundraising activities for the Foundation and oversees areas of public-private partnerships and planned giving.

Angel joined the CDC Foundation in 2011 as a senior advancement officer and in that role developed and implemented public-private sector partner strategies in support of the mission and work of CDC. She has also been responsible for building private sector support for key CDC programs such as the Million Hearts Initiative, Together for Girls, Sickle Cell Disease and Blood Inhibitor Studies.

Prior to joining the CDC Foundation, Angel served as the director of development at Imagine It! The Children’s Museum of Atlanta from 2007-2011. Her career also includes development work as a major gifts officer with The Atlanta Botanical Garden and manager and interim director of Alexis de Tocqueville Society of United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta. Angel is a member of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP).  She has a bachelor of business administration with a major in finance from the University of North Georgia.

In McGehee’s new role, she leads the Foundation’s project implementation activities and is responsible for the program department’s daily operations. She develops program policies and procedures, manages the implementation of program and budget monitoring systems, and reviews and negotiates contracts.

McGehee joined the CDC Foundation in 2007 as a senior program officer and managed a portfolio of programs. From 2009-2012, she served as project coordinator and senior program officer on le Projet de Renforcement de la Surveillance en Afrique Centrale (SURVAC), and was responsible for coordinating this $25 million international project with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the African Regional Office of WHO to strengthen disease surveillance and response, laboratory capacity, and epidemiologic training in Central Africa. In March 2012, she became the manager of a CDC Foundation cooperative agreement focused on developing public private partnerships funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with projects in Kenya, Tanzania and most recently Nigeria.

McGehee came to the Foundation after a career at Georgia State University School of Nursing where she served as an assistant professor from 1985-2005.  She was also the executive director and co-founder of The Atlanta Lesbian Cancer Initiative, a community-based organization providing support to lesbians diagnosed with cancer.

McGehee has a B.S.N. from Emory University’s School of Nursing, an M.N. in Adult Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing from Emory University’s School of Nursing and a Ph.D. in Community Health Nursing from Georgia State University.

Established by Congress, the CDC Foundation helps the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) do more, faster, by forging effective partnerships between CDC and corporations, foundations and individuals to support CDC's 24/7 work to fight threats to health and safety. The CDC Foundation manages approximately 200 CDC-led programs in the United States and in countries around the world. For more information, please visit www.cdcfoundation.org.