David J. Morse, Vice President for Communications for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a distinguished public policy and communications expert whose work with the federal government, universities and philanthropy has advanced strategic communications as a principal means of effecting change. He believes in using policy and communications to create social change, and views his work at the Foundation as an opportunity to help transform health care, promote dramatic improvements in public health and serve the most vulnerable among us.

Under Morse’s leadership, the Foundation’s guiding principles and branding have, as he puts it, “clarified, crystallized, and put into practice” RWJF’s common objectives of leadership, commitment, flexibility, progress, and impact. He has revamped the Foundation’s communications structure to emphasize a philosophy of “speaking with and on behalf of grantees, rather than simply through them,” and coordinating communications efforts to maximize awareness, impact and action.

From his days as a “shoe-leather” epidemiologist for the New York State Health Department to developing legislation on higher education and cultural affairs for the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, Morse has believed in the power of good public policy in shaping outcomes for individuals and organizations. This philosophy also marked his tenure as federal relations director and associate vice president for policy planning at the University of Pennsylvania, and guided his work as chief communications officer at the Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia.

While on staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources from 1977 to 1983, Morse developed legislation affecting higher education and cultural affairs. In 1981 he served as director of the President’s Task Force on the Arts and the Humanities. At Penn, Morse helped build bridges between Congress and the education community, shaping Penn’s first federal relations program. He led joint higher education efforts on behalf of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education and the Association of American Universities that dealt with national research, student aid, and tax policy. He was also a key strategist behind the Science Coalition, a Washington-based group that included more than 40 universities organized to advocate on behalf of robust federal support for university-based research in the national interest.

During his tenure at Pew from 1997 to 2001, Morse managed relationships with media and policy-makers, advised grantees on communications strategies, and oversaw Pew’s grants supporting philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.

Raised in New York, Morse has three children, and today lives in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. with his wife Merete, two large dogs and a cat who thinks he's a dog.

Education: Morse received an M.A. in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in history from Hamilton College.