La June Montgomery Tabron
President and CEO
W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek
Employees: 225
2025 Distributions: $400M
When the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2030, La June Montgomery Tabron, a native of the east side of Detroit and a product of Cass Technical High School and the University of Michigan, will be leading the festivities.
Among the activities planned for the golden year is a look at the progress made by the $90 million Racial Equity 2030 program, which was introduced in 2020 when the foundation put out a global call to organizations using innovative ideas to meet the challenges that keep children and their families from thriving.
Projects included in Racial Equity 2030 are the first equitable education system in Brazil, an alternative rehabilitation program for young people in Hawaii designed to eliminate incarceration, a national environmental justice program, and a land rights effort for indigenous people.
“These are aspirational, systemic changes that, if replicated, could really change the face of the world,” Tabron says. “That $90 million will lead us to our 100th anniversary, when we look at the progress made since 2020.”
Tabron started out as an accountant with Plante Moran in Southfield after she graduated from U-M in 1984. Three years later she was recruited to join the Kellogg Foundation, and she’s been there ever since.
“It was a great move for me,” she says. “It’ll be 40 years next year.”
Tabron started as controller when the foundation was automating its accounting system.
“I was the leader that helped convert all of the manual systems to the first AS 400 enterprise accounting system,” she recalls.
Over time, Tabron, who earned an MBA from Northwestern University in 1999, added responsibility for information technology and human resources.
“I was the treasurer as well as the chief administrative officer. I just kept getting more and more responsibilities,” she explains.
In 2014, she became president and CEO — she was the first African-American female to serve in either of those positions at Kellogg.
“It’s definitely more rewarding to be working for an organization, especially for me coming from the city of Detroit, that’s making an impact in a city that I had grown up in,” she says. “I could serve the children who looked like me. It made me feel that I was giving back to the same families I had come from.”
Her job, in addition to granting millions of dollars to deserving programs around the world, involves extensive travel to events and conferences, including the recent Semafor conference in Washington, D.C., which gathered global CEOs of companies and philanthropic organizations, as well as decision-makers, to ponder the issues and policies facing the well-being of children and their families.
“I go to events to share the work of the Kellogg Foundation, and connect with businesspeople and others who align with our work (and) could be a partner for us in the future,” she says. “Sometimes I wonder where I’m waking up.”
The work of the Kellogg Foundation started with a $30 million bequest from the will of cereal titan Will Keith (W.K.) Kellogg in 1930. The investment portfolio that $30 million started has grown to $10.5 billion today; since 1930, the foundation has awarded more than $12 billion in grants.
In addition to her work at the Kellogg Foundation, Tabron is a board member of the Bronson Healthcare Group, the Michigan Economic Development Corp., and the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America – College Retirement Equities Fund.
She has received the Louis E. Martin Great American Award from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (2022), participated in a fellowship at Kellogg College at the University of Oxford (2020), and has been given honorary doctorates from Elms College, Grand Valley State University, Ithaca College, Marygrove College, and Union Institute & University.
“We just want to leave a legacy for children all over the world, especially in Mr. Kellogg’s beloved community of Battle Creek, where he grew up,” Tabron says.
— Tim Keenan
“The dress I’m wearing is my mother’s favorite color. My mother exemplified the strength, courage, and perseverance that I try to imitate. She is truly my inspiration.”
