Walter D. Woods is a recognized leader in the field of non-profit management known for his unique blend of business acumen and humanitarian pursuits. Over the course of his career, he has raised more than $450 million and overseen the distribution of over $500 million in philanthropic investments. Throughout his career, he has endeavored to drive robust business strategies that both enhance business value and increase community impact. His successes at the Boys & Girls Clubs led him to an advisory role within the philanthropic arm of The World Bank Group where he created sustainable programs to reduce poverty and increase prosperity locally, focusing on jurisdictions around the headquarters (i.e., DC, MD, VA). Walter was directly responsible for The Bank Group’s 20% year-over-year increase in employee volunteerism.

Walter later served as Vice President, Strategic Programs for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Foundation where he co-created solutions that addressed senior social isolation in America. Subsequently, he was President of the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Foundation. In this capacity, Walter recruited a high-performing team responsible for growing and managing $90M in assets. He was instrumental in creating and optimizing the Foundation’s planned giving initiative, increasing donations by 48%. Equally noteworthy, Walter created and supported a transformational agenda that leveraged the Society’s network to shape America’s aging agenda for the 21st century.

As CEO of The Humana Foundation, Walter led all efforts to improve and sustain positive health outcomes using an equity lens, including partnership development, strategic investments, and community relationships. Walter managed all Enterprise philanthropic disaster relief efforts as well as partnerships with peer foundations that focused on social determinants of health. Walter evolved the Foundation’s philanthropic giving strategy from an activity-based funding approach to an outcomes-based investing approach. Doing so streamlined the Foundation’s work flow, enabling a scalable giving strategy. The new community investing approach he implemented further enabled the Humana enterprise’s deployment of its social, moral, intellectual, reputational, and financial philanthropic capital. In his last role at Humana he served as a Strategic Advisor to The Humana Foundation.

Most recently Walter served as VP, Philanthropy for CVS Health where among strategy development and execution in support of CVS Health’s local, regional and national community impact he received approval from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion to join its Healthy People 2030 Champions Program.

Walter’s interests include international adventure travel, sky diving, downhill skiing, and classical piano. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Howard University, a Master of Business Administration in Marketing, Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management of Northwestern University, and a certificate for non-profit executive leaders from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.