Alicia Fernandez Dicks

Alicia Fernandez Dicks is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, an organization creating transformative social impact through the stewardship of more than $175 million in charitable community assets.

Since joining the Foundation in 2015, Ms. Dicks has advanced initiatives to address critical and complex social challenges including racial equity, social justice, childhood lead poisoning and neighborhood revitalization. She works closely with a volunteer board and professional staff to realize the Community Foundation’s vision for a “vibrant community with opportunity for all” in the two counties it serves.

Ms. Dicks serves on the City of Utica’s Access and Inclusion Committee; the Downtown Revitalization Initiative Local Planning Committee; and the boards of the Save of the Day Foundation, the School & Business Alliance and the Mohawk Valley Economic Development Growth Enterprises Corporation. Representing the community and the region, she was appointed to the New York Forward Reopening Advisory Board, New York’s Vaccine Equity Taskforce, and the Cortland State College Equity and Social Justice Task Force.

Previously, Ms. Dicks was President of the Fort Schuyler Management Corporation, where she managed the construction, maintenance, and operations of the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute’s Computer Chip Commercialization Center. She also has spent more than a decade as Regional Executive Director at National Grid, managing regional business operations and directing market strategy. Her public policy career began at the Albany Local Development Corporation and in Albany city government as a Senior Economic Developer.

Ms. Dicks has been recognized for her many contributions to her community and region, including being named one of the YWCA of the Mohawk Valley’s Women of the Year and receiving the On Point for College’s Dream Maker Award and a New York State Senate Commendation.

She earned a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from University at Albany and a Bachelor’s in International Relations from the State University of New York at Cortland.