Allyn Brooks-Lasure

Allyn Brooks-LaSure joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in 2020 as vice president for Communications. In this role, he leads the Communications department and, as a key member of the RWJF’s senior leadership team, is responsible for advancing the Foundation’s vision and brand by implementing a high-impact communications strategy that supports mindset changes and drives policies that address health equity and the social determinants of health.

Brooks-LaSure came to the Foundation with more than 20 years of communications, management, and policy experience. Prior to joining the Foundation, he served as the executive vice president for communications at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights—a 70-year-old coalition of more than 220 civil rights organizations leading the fights that matter most to communities in America. In this role, he was charged with broadening and extending the reach and effectiveness of the traditional civil rights movement.

Brooks-LaSure previously served as a U.S. State Department foreign service officer, with domestic and overseas postings in Washington, Saudi Arabia, and Australia. As climate communications advisor in the State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs, he managed the department’s efforts to showcase U.S. leadership on climate change—most notably at the 2015 Paris climate negotiations.

As an Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency political appointee, Brooks-LaSure co-led all aspects of web communications, public engagement, media relations, and production for the agency. He has also served as spokesman for two U.S. Senators, the National Prostate Cancer Coalition, and the Save Darfur Coalition. At the Caraway Group, Brooks-LaSure led public relations client accounts for the Microsoft Corporation and the U.S. Army Accessions Command. He is a past board member of the Greater Washington Urban League Thursday Network and was a founding board member of the Virginia Leadership Institute.

Brooks-LaSure completed his BA in psychology at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. and is a native of Bridgeton, N.J.