Yolonda C. Richardson

Yolonda C. Richardson is President and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and its Global Health Advocacy Incubator, a position she has held since July 1, 2023. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is the leading advocacy organization working to reduce tobacco use and its deadly consequences in the United States and around the world.

From 2009 to 2023, Richardson served as Executive Vice President for Global Programs at Tobacco-Free Kids. In that role, she oversaw efforts to enact and implement effective tobacco control policies in over 60 countries. Under Richardson’s leadership, the global program expanded in 2014 to focus on other critical public health challenges with the launch of the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI). Building on the successes and lessons learned in the fight against tobacco, GHAI tackles other critical public health challenges across the globe – including food and nutrition policy, injury and overdose prevention, and building resilient and equitable health systems. 

Prior to joining Tobacco-Free Kids, Richardson served as the President and Founder of Richardson Consulting, a managing consulting firm that specialized in providing senior level strategic support and expertise to nonprofit organizations, foundations, corporate philanthropies and global development agencies. Richardson has also held leadership roles at the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), the African Development Foundation, Africare and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 

Richardson is a recognized expert on global public health, gender and international development, philanthropy and corporate social responsibility. She speaks and lectures regularly on international development issues and has appeared as an expert source in top media outlets, including the Associated Press, Reuters, C-SPAN and National Public Radio. She has worked in and traveled to more than 60 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Central and South America. She has served on the boards of several national and international organizations. Having practiced as a corporate attorney at the Wall Street law firm, Cahill Gordon & Reindel, Richardson continues to be a member of the New York Bar Association. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Richardson holds a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and a juris doctorate from Yale University School of Law. She received a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Dillard University in New Orleans.