Staff

Frederick J. Ferrer

Frederick Ferrer has over three decades of leadership in mobilizing stakeholders and staff toward change through groundbreaking nonprofit and public policy initiatives, programs and systems reforms. Prior to becoming CEO of Child Advocates, Frederick founded and led Manzanita Solutions, where he provided consultation on health, early childhood, non-profit management, and systems reform. Before that, he served for nine years as CEO at the Health Trust, a $100 million foundation, which provides direct health services, grants, and drives policy to improve the health of the community. Frederick is the former Executive Director of Estrella Family Services, and was chair of the FIRST 5 Santa Clara County Commission. He is Chair of the Santa Clara University’s College of Arts and Sciences Leadership Advisory Board and chaired the University’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Diversity and Inclusion. He is the former chair of the Rocketship Public Schools board and is also a member of the Children’s Discovery Museum LGBTQ Advisory Board. Throughout his career, Frederick has received numerous awards including: The John Gardner Leadership Award from ALF-SV, the Human Relations Award from the Santa Clara County Commission on Human Relations, and PACT’s Community Builder Award. For over 25 years, Frederick has been on the adjunct child development faculty at De Anza College. He is a Dean’s Executive Professor of Public Health at Santa Clara University and an instructor in the Special Education credential EPIC program at the Santa Clara County Office of Education. He has completed two distinguished programs at Harvard University: the Performance Measurement for Effective Management of Nonprofit Organizations, and Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management. He also completed the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Frederick holds a B.S. degree from Santa Clara University, a M.S. degree from San Jose State University, and an honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Santa Clara University.