The Center for the Future of Arizona board of directors has named Dr. Sybil Francis as board chair in addition to her current role as president and CEO.

The unanimous decision makes official a role that Francis assumed in July 2022 as acting chair following a decision by CFA co-founder Lattie Coor to retire as founding chair emeritus.

CFA founding board member Bill Post, who chairs the organization’s finance committee, said the appointment reflects the board’s confidence in Francis’s leadership, the impact she has made, and the immense potential for CFA with her at the helm.

“CFA has experienced exponential growth in size and impact since Dr. Francis assumed her role as president and CEO in 2018,” Post said in a statement. “Dr. Francis has consistently guided effective decisions and strategies in lockstep with CFA’s nonpartisan mission — and with the best interests of all Arizonans and the greater good at the forefront. Now as chair, president and CEO, the impact she is already making will only be amplified.”

CFA has an ambitious and positive agenda focused on where Arizonans agree and where there are opportunities to come together for positive change. CFA advances The Arizona We Want, based on Arizonans’ Shared Public Values and aspirations for the future of Arizona.

George Dean, president and CEO of Greater Phoenix Urban League and CFA’s first and longest-serving board member, has witnessed firsthand the organization’s evolution and impact over the last two decades.

“Dr. Francis has ensured CFA truly lives up to its name as a future-focused organization committed to advancing Arizona based on the issues that matter to all Arizonans,” said Dean in a statement. “As a result, CFA has become an even more respected, valued, and dependable resource for our entire state.”

Francis, who is also one of CFA’s co-founders, anchors her leadership of the organization in her passion for creating positive change, her considerable public policy experience earned at a national level, and her love for Arizona which became her home in 2002. Francis has previously served CFA as president and CEO and as executive director.

“I am grateful for the confidence and partnership of CFA’s remarkable board of directors, for the opportunity to work towards a mission I deeply believe in alongside extraordinary colleagues, and to serve the people of a state that has my heart,” said Dr. Francis.