Susan K. Urahn to Step Down as Pew’s President and CEO

After 30 years at The Pew Charitable Trusts—including more than five years as president and CEO—Susan K. Urahn announced today that she will be retiring once a successor is in place, which is expected to be January 2027.

“Throughout my tenure I’ve been fortunate to work with remarkably talented colleagues and a strong Board of Directors, all dedicated to finding common ground and using facts as the foundation for discussion and action,” Urahn said.  “We are committed to making a positive and measurable impact globally, in the United States, and in our hometown of Philadelphia. I’m especially proud that we’ve built a solid foundation for the future with shared values and a nonpartisan approach focused on serving the public.”

“Under Sue’s leadership, Pew has become even better and stronger,” noted Christopher Jones, Chair of Pew’s Board of Directors. “The Board of Directors is incredibly grateful for her inspired leadership.”

From 1994 to 1997, Urahn was a key member of the planning and evaluation division and then directed the department from 1997 to 2000. In that role, she helped assess the impact of Pew’s strategic approach to grantmaking. After seven years leading Pew’s education and state policy portfolio, Urahn helped launch the Pew Center on the States and served as its director from 2007 to 2012. She became an executive vice president in 2012, leading all of Pew’s work on state policy, economics, and health care, then became chief program officer in 2016 and president and CEO on July 1, 2020.

The Board of Directors is currently planning a search for Pew’s next president, which is expected to launch in early 2026.

Founded in 1948, Pew uses data to make a difference—addressing the challenges of a changing world by illuminating issues, creating common ground, and advancing ambitious strategies that lead to tangible progress. The Pew Research Center, a subsidiary of the Trusts, conducts research about the issues, attitudes, and trends shaping the United States and the world.

As an independent nonprofit, Pew works in partnership with philanthropists, concerned citizens, policymakers, and other organizations that share its commitment to nonpartisan, fact-based research and recommendations.

Based in Philadelphia, Pew is the sole beneficiary of seven individual charitable funds established between 1948 and 1979 by two sons and two daughters of Sun Oil Co. founder Joseph Newton Pew and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew. Honoring their parents’ religious conviction that good works should be done quietly, the original Pew Memorial Foundation was a grantmaking organization that made donations anonymously. In 1957, the foundation was restructured, and its assets were transferred to The Pew Memorial Trust.

Between 1957 and 1979, six other trusts were created, representing the personal and complementary philanthropic interests of four committed siblings: J. Howard Pew, Mary Ethel Pew, Joseph Newton Pew, Jr., and Mabel Pew Myrin. The organization conducts research, encourages collaboration, and makes recommendations on a range of issues, including housing affordability, improving public health data, energy system modernization, and land and water conservation.