Herschelle Patricia Milford (she/her) brings more than 25 years of international executive leadership experience spanning the United States, Europe, and South Africa. A purpose-driven leader grounded in empathy, equity, and inclusion, she has spent her career building organizational capacity, strengthening communities, and developing high-performing teams at mission-focused organizations around the world.
She founded a Resource Centre for Youth and Teacher Development in one of South Africa’s most underserved regions during Apartheid — a first-of-its-kind nonprofit. She then served for nearly two decades as CEO of a land and agriculture non-profit where she tripled the donor base, secured multi-year funding partners, managed a multi-million-dollar budget with clean annual audits, and established a national alliance of likeminded organizations.
Herschelle served as Coordinator for Food Justice at Fastenaktion – Fast and Action – a Swiss donor, advising the Director for the Africa Region and providing capacity-building support to Southern African partner organizations. Most recently, as Director of Programs at PATH Santa Barbara, she led daily operations of a homeless services nonprofit — boosting staff retention from 23% to full capacity, playing a key role in building the new CalAIM program and exceeding financial targets in its first six months, and transforming organizational culture toward more inclusive and participatory practices.
Her board service reflects the same breadth of commitment: she currently serves on the board of Thousand Currents and on the Racial Equity Fund Grantmaking Committee of The Fund for Santa Barbara, and has previously served on the boards of the Environmental Monitoring Group, Mothers2Mothers, and Bio Watch SA, among others.
Herschelle holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Linguistics and a Higher Diploma in Education from the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. She is fluent in English and Afrikaans and is actively developing conversational Spanish.
Herschelle’s personal values align deeply with those of LEAP: collaboration and connection, integrity and respect, creativity and curiosity, and leading with joy. She is honored to bring her global perspective and unwavering commitment to community-centered impact to the LEAP team.