About: President and CEO

Donald T. Floyd, Jr.
President and CEO
National 4-H Council

Donald T. Floyd, Jr. has been associated with innovative leadership of youth serving non-profits for more than 30 years. In his current leadership role as President and CEO of National 4-H Council, Don provides facilitative stewardship of National 4-H Council. National 4-H Council is the private sector, non-profit partner of 4-H, one of America's largest and most diverse youth organizations. 4-H is a community of more than 6.5 million young people across America who are learning leadership, citizenship and life skills.

The National 4-H Council mission is: To advance the 4-H youth development movement building a world in which youth and adults learn, grow, and work together as catalysts for positive change. Don works diligently to ensure that the mission honors shared leadership and supports the National 4-H Strategic Plan. Under his leadership, National 4-H Council led 4-H in the National Conversation on Youth Development in the 21st Century and created the first national action agenda for youth policy. The Conversations engaged 50,000 youth and adults of various ages and backgrounds from all 50 states and Puerto Rico and resulted in the most comprehensive and inclusive national youth agenda ever produced.

4-H is a pioneer in the after-school arena and more than 4.2 million youth participate in 4-H Afterschool programs. With the introduction of 4-H Afterschool in A Box which was unveiled at the National 4-H Afterschool Roll-Out Conference in April 2003, Don said "The 4-H movement takes a major stride toward ensuring greater access, equity, and opportunity for all youth." The 4-H Afterschool initiative is just one example of today's 4-H movement which Don actively seeks partners to engage in and support after-school programming. Don also spends a great deal of his time on the road visiting prospective Board members, as well as visiting donors and seeking corporate partners to support the 4-H movement.

For 17 years, he held local and national level jobs with Junior Achievement (an international non-profit teaching economics and business to youth). His career started as an executive director in Reading, Pa. In 1976, he moved to the National Junior Achievement office to lead Junior Achievement's first venture into classroom-based programming. That middle school program is today Junior Achievement's largest program. Don also led the resurgence of JA in New York City and as National Executive Vice President, led major areas of expansion, including their international program.

He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Albright College; he also serves as Chair of the International Leaders Committee of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University. In April 2001, Don was one of six inaugural recipients of the International Fellows in Applied Developmental Science.

Don is a 1965 graduate of Reading High School, served in the US Air Force 1966-1970, and is a 1973 graduate of Albright College in Reading, Pa. Don and his wife, Carolyn, have five children.

A selection of Don's speeches can be viewed on the video page.