Eddie Koen, President & CEO

A Chicago native with roots in Alabama, Eddie Koen has a passion for education, equity, and criminal justice reform. Before his arrival at Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, Mr. Koen served as President of Institute for Educational Leadership and President and Chief Executive Officer for the Urban League of Greater Southwest Ohio (ULGSO), one of the largest Urban League affiliates in the country serving Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Dayton, Ohio.

He grew the League from 45 to 90 staff members during his tenure, increased the budget from 4.9 to 13 million, and launched the first Center for Social Justice to serve as the regional catalyst for collaborative police reform efforts. ULGSO secured at least one job per day in the region and served 1600 black, brown, & women-owned businesses a year with total revenues of over seven billion and 60 thousand employees. After securing the most significant programmatic personal gift of $1M, the center expanded to education advocacy and health equity work. The Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio also serves as headquarters to the Small Business Development Center of Hamilton County.

Before his role at Urban League, he served as the Chief Impact Officer for Mile High United Way, where he directed $18 million in investment strategies and programming, shifting the work towards neighborhood needs. Eddie served as the chief-of-staff for Denver Public Schools (DPS), the largest school district in Colorado with a one-billion-dollar budget, where he was charged with overall coordination of policy, lobbying, and strategy. Under Eddie’s efforts, DPS eliminated expulsions and drastically reduced suspensions for all students in the district from K-3. In Denver, Eddie served as vice-chair of the Board of Trustees for the Denver Foundation (TDF), an $820M community foundation, chaired their work around racial equity, and served as a finance
committee member.