Victoria Wakefield
Program Director, E.A. Morris Fellowship for Emerging Leaders
Victoria Wakefield is the Program Director of the E.A. Morris Fellowship for Emerging Leaders. Victoria also serves as Senior Director of Organizational Intelligence at State Policy Network, where she serves as a key partner in transforming how the organization measures, learns, and makes decisions. In this role, she bridges strategy, operations, and data—aligning organizational KPIs across teams and building the systems that turn information into clarity, coordination, and impact. Known for her integrator mindset and ability to translate complexity into actionable insights, Victoria leads cross-functional initiatives that embed intelligence into SPN’s everyday operations. She works closely with colleagues across all departments to ensure that metrics, reporting, and learning inform both internal decisions and external commitments. Since joining SPN in 2016, she has served on both the Development and Programs teams,…
John Hood
President, John William Pope Foundation
John Hood is president of the John William Pope Foundation, a Raleigh-based grantmaker that supports public policy organizations, educational institutions, arts and cultural programs, and humanitarian relief in North Carolina and beyond. Hood also serves on the board of the John Locke Foundation, the state policy think tank he helped found in 1989 and led as its president for more than two decades. Since 1986, Hood has written a syndicated column on politics and public policy for North Carolina newspapers. It currently appears regularly in the Winston-Salem Journal, Greensboro News & Record, Wilmington Star-News, and newspapers in 50 other communities. A frequent radio and television commentator, Hood is the author of seven nonfiction books on such subjects as business, advertising, public policy, and political history. His most-recent books are Mountain Folk (2021, Forest Folk (2022), and Water Folk (2024),…