Candace Osunsade
Global Chief People & Diversity Officer/EVP Global People Resources
Candace’s role
Candace has been CRS’ EVP/Global Chief People and Diversity Officer since October 2020. Candace is an award-winning, respected industry thought leader with expertise in transformational change. She came to CRS from the U.S. National Aquarium (located in Baltimore), where she was the Senior VP/Chief Administrative Officer.
In her role, Osunsade leads the Global People Resources division to support 8,200 CRS staff globally. Osunsade has led the process to globalize human resources through providing direct service and support to individual CRS staff members while also being strategic thought partners with leaders across the agency on complex people challenges. Since Osunsade started, GPR has launched global initiatives such as the Respect, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) initiative, transformed the division into providing global HR support, an agency-wide total compensation strategy that upholds CRS’ values and advance its workforce goals, and more fully integrated HR and REDI values and initiatives into the CRS Vision 2030 strategy.
Education and other roles
A graduate of Cornell University, Osunsade is a certified Senior Human Resource Professional, a Non-Profit Standards of Excellence Consultant and an Executive Leadership Coach. In 2015, Osunsade was recognized as the Non-Profit Chief Human Resource Officer of the Year by HRO Today and, most recently, as one of the Top 100 Women in Maryland by The Daily Record. She is an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Executive Alliance, and the Women’s Business Council. Osunsade is also actively engaged in the Baltimore community as a Board Member for Building Steps, Associated Black Charities, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and the Maryland Governor’s Tourism and Development Commission.
More about Candace
Candace is a committed supporter of organizations in Baltimore and West Africa with missions focused on improving educational access and outcomes for underserved students. She maintains a home in Nigeria, from which she bases her work in West Africa, focused on growing women leaders.
