Linda Whitlock

Nonprofit executive Linda Whitlock was born on December 3, 1947 in Richmond, Virginia to Sarah Johnson Whitlock and Kenneth Edward Whitlock. Whitlock received her B.A. degree in psychology from Mount Holyoke College in 1972 and her M.A. degree in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1981.

In 1980, Whitlock was hired as an instructor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT and as director of the Massachusetts Government Land Bank. Three years later, she was appointed director of the Massachusetts Office of Real Property. In 1984, Whitlock joined Tufts University as an instructor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy. She became vice president of Harvard Real Estate in 1989. In 1990, she was hired by Concord Academy as assistant head for marketing and associate director of admissions. Two years later, she joined Buckingham Browne & Nichols School where she served as assistant head for enrollment management. From 1999 to 2008, Whitlock served as the Nicholas president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston. In 2008, she founded and became principal of The Whitlock Group, which provides management and governance consulting to boards of directors and CEOs. In 2021, Whitlock was appointed by President Joe Biden to the Presidential Commission on White House Fellows.

Whitlock has served on numerous boards including those of the Cambridge Trust Company, Red Sox Foundation, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, The Princeton Review, National Association of Corporate Directors New England, Boston Museum of African American History, and Brandeis University. She also has served as co-chair of Women Corporate Directors Boston and has been a member of The Boston Club’s Executive Advisory Council, the Boston Women Leaders Network, and the Boston Library Society. Whitlock was appointed to various commissions by Democratic and Republican governors and mayors and served as associate finance director for Dukakis for President in 1987, co-chaired Obama Victory Trustees in 2012, and was a leading national fundraiser for Hillary for America in 2016.

In 2009, Whitlock was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Bostonians by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. In 2003, she was named one of the Most Powerful Women in Boston by Boston Magazine and was the Boston Municipal Research Bureau’s Shattuck City Champion. Whitlock received the National Service to Youth Award from Boys & Girls Clubs of America as well as the Woman of Valor Award from the Anti-Defamation League New England in 2008. In 2011, Whitlock received the Advancing Women Award from the Boston Business Journal, and, in 2017, she received the Abigail Adams Award from the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus. Whitlock holds honorary doctorates from Babson College, Suffolk University, and Pine Manor College.

Whitlock and her husband, Marc Cumsky, have two children, Jake and Leah, and seven grandchildren.

Linda Whitlock was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on August 23, 2019 and August 20, 2022.