Priscilla Ma

Executive Director

Born and educated in Canada, Priscilla spent more than 10 years as a marketing professional in global advertising agencies including Ogilvy, McCann Erickson and Saatchi & Saatchi. During that time, she handled international accounts such as General Motors, Motorola, and Nestlé.

Taking a sabbatical that lasted for 14 months, Priscilla traveled around the world to Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Southern Africa. Her involvement as a volunteer with local NGOs in Thailand and Mozambique provided first-hand knowledge on how volunteers and donors can make a tremendous difference providing the simplest tasks and humblest contributions.

Upon her return to New York, Priscilla decided on a career change to nonprofits, and was hired by Smile Train in July 2005, as Vice President of Marketing & Development, responsible for worldwide marketing and fundraising activities to further Smile Train’s efforts to cure poor children with clefts in the developing world. In this position, Priscilla managed multi-channel direct response campaigns (direct mail, print, online, email, outbound telemarketing, and direct response television), and was instrumental in the development and launch of Smile Train’s programs in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Under her guidance were also Smile Train’s other development activities including foundation grant proposal and reporting, website development and maintenance, donation caging and processing, database maintenance, and donor relations.

In March 2011, Priscilla was promoted to Executive Director by Smile Train’s Board of Directors and continues to play a leading role in the overall marketing and fundraising activities. Under her leadership, Smile Train’s donor base has grown from 335,000 to over 2,500,000.

At Smile Train, she feels she has achieved a perfect balance of “heart and brain,” using her business and marketing expertise to change the lives of tens of thousands of children every year.

Priscilla earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, specializing in Marketing and International Business. In addition, she earned a Masters of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.