M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust announces new CEO

The Vancouver-based M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust announced Wednesday that Romanita Hairston will join the private foundation as its fifth CEO and executive director.

Steve Moore, the foundation’s current CEO who has been in the role for 16 years, announced his planned retirement in June 2021.

Hairston will officially join the organization in July. She will be the first woman and the first person of color to head the long-standing organization, which was founded in 1975 by the estate of Melvin Jack Murdock, a philanthropist, investor and co-founder of Tektronix.

After graduating from the University of Washington, Hairston worked in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years. She served as the senior leader at World Vision for 20 years, as a program director at the Murdock Trust for two years and in multiple roles at Microsoft for four years. She earned her MBA in global development and nonprofit management from Eastern University in Philadelphia. She is the founder of MORE320, a nonprofit consulting company that supports organizations as they aim to effect social change.

“Having observed and worked for and with the Murdock Trust for many years, I know it to be a unique institution dedicated to serving the common good. I look forward to partnering with nonprofit and business leaders, community foundation colleagues, and civic leaders who are all working to help ensure that individuals, families and communities throughout our region flourish,” Hairston said in a news release.

Hairston was selected following a national search that engaged hundreds of candidates.

The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust is one of the largest private, nonprofit foundations in Washington and in the Pacific Northwest. In 2021, the nonprofit awarded more than $110 million in grants, including nearly $610,000 in Clark County.