Anne Lynam Goddard has been a passionate voice for the world’s most vulnerable individuals and families for the past 40 years.
Goddard began her career in the Peace Corps, living in a mud house in Kenya and traveling among remote villages by motorbike. After earning a master’s degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she joined the international humanitarian organization CARE and lived and worked overseas for almost 20 years, serving in a variety of roles focused on maternal and child well-bring in Somalia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Egypt.
In 2022, Goddard retired from ChildFund International, a child-focused development organization, after serving as its president and chief executive officer for 15 years. At ChildFund, Goddard drew on her personal experiences overseas and deep industry knowledge to direct the organization’s efforts to help children find and create greater opportunity, hope and self-sufficiency. Building on the organization’s 85-year history, Goddard implemented strategies that expanded and deepened ChildFund’s global efforts to advance child protection and improve children’s health, education and economic conditions, reaching more than 16 million children and family members annually. Strategies increased organizational technical capabilities, strengthened local partnerships, diversified private and institutional fundraising, expanded advocacy efforts globally, and rebranded ChildFund.
In 2023, Goddard served as the interim president and CEO for InterAction, a convenor, thought leader and united voice for the largest U.S.-based alliance of international nonprofit organizations. InterAction mobilizes its 180 members, who manage more than US$15 billion in programs worldwide, to think and act collectively to serve the world’s poor and vulnerable, with a shared belief that we can make the world a more peaceful, just and prosperous place together.
Goddard is active in her own community and in other nonprofit organizations. She has served on numerous boards of directors including InterAction, the Basic Education Coalition, the Richmond Forum, and the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. Goddard also was appointed to the federal Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid, served on the executive advisory committee for the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business, and was the first female chair of the Forum Club of Richmond in its nearly 100-year history.
In 2009, Goddard received an honorary Ph.D. from Assumption College, where she earned her bachelor’s degree. She was voted “Influential Woman of the Year” in 2011 by Virginia’s Lawyers Media and was a 2013 honoree of the YWCA’s Outstanding Women’s Awards for nonprofit management.
Goddard joined the FHI 360 board of directors in October 2025.