Cecile Keith Brown has worked in non-profit management for 25 years. She currently oversees the University of Michigan’s North Central Regional Major Gifts Office, for University Development, based in Chicago, Illinois. She has held executive leadership positions at Chicago Children’s Museum, where she managed fund raising, marketing, public relations, membership and special events. She was chief of staff at the Museum of Science and Industry, overseeing the Museum’s strategic planning process. Previous staff management and fund raising positions include: Director of Major Gifts, University of Chicago, and Wayne State University. She began her non-profit career in arts administration, with The Detroit Symphony Orchestra where she held three positions with increasing responsibility: Education Coordinator, Special Events Manager, and Director of Sales. Cecile has an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, a graduate degree from the California Institute of the Arts and has completed Northwestern
Laura Coy, CFRE, was responsible for major gift fundraising activities in the state of Illinois for the National Alzheimer`s Association. In this capacity, she successfully raised over $6 million in the past four years through the careful identification, qualification, cultivation, soliciation and stewardship of major gift prospects. Working closely with board, volunteers and chapter networks, she managed an integrated budgeting process to enhance fundraising activities and relationship development. Currently, Laura is the Senior Corporate Philanthropist for W.W. Grainger Inc. where she will apply her non-profit experience to corporate social responsibility initiatives. Prior to joining the Alzheimer`s Association, Laura was the Manager of Major and Planned Giving at the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago and the Director of the Annual Fund Campaign at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. She earned her B.S. in Political Science and Communications at the University of Illinois.
At Rush, Brian directs a team of six major and planned gift fund raisers responsible for about one third of the achievement in Rush’s $300 million campaign. Prior to Rush, Brian was Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at the University of New Mexico, where he managed a team responsible for $25 million a year in new corporate and foundation commitments across all departments of UNM. Before that he worked in major gifts for the University of Connecticut, Clark University and the Cheshire Academy. He brings a business sense to development cultivated during ten years as a consultant and sales manager in consulting businesses serving the computer and telecommunications industries. He has an interactive and involving presentation style honed over ten years of teaching at the middle and high school levels. He is a graduate of Yale and of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
