Lionel Anderson

Lionel Anderson is a Principal at JM Search. He brings years of executive search experience spanning the civic and social impact sectors and is a trusted adviser to boards and senior leaders engaged in the work of succession planning and presidential transition. He is most sought after for his expertise within the worlds of advocacy, philanthropy, nonprofit, and higher education and the intersections therein.

Prior to JM Search, Anderson was a Managing Director in the non-profit and higher education practices at the Diversified Search Group where he served an array of civic sector clients. There he led inaugural CEO recruitments for private equity and corporate funded social impact 501(c)(3)s, local and national non-profits, as well as academia.

Additionally, Lionel has led CEO searches for the Coastal Community Foundation, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Independence Public Media Foundation, and an inaugural VP recruitment for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. His roster of clients also comprises museums, liberal arts colleges, and flagship universities. He began his executive search career at Isaacson, Miller, following a decade working in college student development.

Lionel earned a B.A. as well as an M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania. And, for the last 20 years, he has mentored and coached graduate students enrolled within their Graduate School of Education’s higher education management program. A former board member of TeenSHARP, a nonprofit college preparatory program for promising low-income students in Philadelphia and Camden, Lionel led efforts to fund the organization’s early college tours with students while simultaneously publishing seasonal op-eds with The New York Times pertaining to undergraduate student success. He resides in Washington, DC.