Toby Alice Volkman is the Program Officer of the Education, Media, Arts and Culture Program of The Ford Foundation in New York, where she is responsible for the Foundation’s work in area studies. Under her leadership, the Foundation launched a major new initiative, "Crossing Borders: Revitalizing Area Studies." Prior to joining the Foundation in January of 1995, Dr. Volkman served for nine years as Director of the South and Southeast Asia Programs at the Social Science Research Council in New York City.

A cultural anthropologist, she received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Cornell University. Her research on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi has ranged over such topics as social history, identity, tourism, ritual, gender, and the arts. She has also written extensively on ethnographic film. She is the author of the book Feasts of Honor: Ritual and Change in the Toraja Highlands (University of Illinois Press, 1985), as well as numerous articles.