Linda Novick O’Keefe is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Common Threads. Under her leadership, Common Threads has grown its in-school, after-school, teacher and provider training, and family programming to more than 750 schools and community partner sites in 10 major U.S. cities, teaching 600,000 children, parents and educators what it means to cook for life.
From Common Threads’ inception, Linda prioritized developing nutrition education programs designed to achieve real behavior change. She is a champion of rigorous evaluation and external collaboration with academic experts. By creating a scaled and sustainable program, Linda has provided a platform for innovation in nutrition education.
Linda has been a Kellogg School of Management Board Governance Fellowship Mentor and served on the Building a Healthier Chicago Task Force. She was the recipient of the Anti-Defamation League’s Rising Star Award, was featured by Today’s Chicago Woman as one of 100 Women Making a Difference, was included as one of Clean Plates Moms on a Mission and was a 2018 SWSX Community Service Award Honoree.
She currently serves on the Smithsonian’s Kitchen Cabinet and as a Babson College Social Innovation Fellow. Linda has her Executive Education Certificate, Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management, from Harvard University; her master’s degree in Public Service Management from DePaul University; and her bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Arizona State University. She resides in Austin with her husband Nick and two children, Zachary and Julia.
