Tuesday, July 28, at 8:00 AM

Walking the Walk – The Role of a Trustee Today and Tomorrow

Grand Horizon EFG

Capacity: 100

Ticket: $50

Join us for a continental buffet breakfast and a special program designed for directors, CEOs, and leaders at any level and career stage.

What does it mean to “walk the walk” as a museum trustee? During a 45-minute fireside chat with a panel of local museum trustees, we’ll find out what has motivated their call to service, how their responsibilities and approaches to board governance have evolved, how they create institutional change in collaboration with staff, and how they hold institutional values in their role. Hear their perspectives, and bring your own burning questions to the conversation!

This hour-long event (8:00-9:00 a.m.) will include time to mingle with your peers during breakfast service (~15 min). There will also be time immediately following the fireside chat (~30 min) before the start of the Flash Talks, our morning general session.  

Panelists:

• Marshall Field V
• Sunny Fischer

The leadership breakfast is sponsored by Solid Light, Inc.

Panelists:

Marshall Field V

Museum Board Service: Field Museum and Art Institute of Chicago

Marshall Field is the fifth generation of a Chicago family whose activities have included merchandising, real estate, publishing, communications, and civic affairs. He is a graduate of Harvard College and has served as publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Daily News. Field was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Art Institute from 1965 to 2012, a member of the Board of Trustees of Rush University Medical Center since 1970 (Life Trustee), and a life member of the Board of Trustees of the Field Museum. In 2010, Field converted the Jamee and Marshall Field Foundation, to a donor-advised endowment fund, the Marshall and Jamee Field Family Fund, at The Chicago Community Trust. Field is a member of the Board of Directors of the Field Foundation of Illinois, The Everglades Foundation (Chair 2014-2018), The Regenstein Foundation, and the Veterinary Initiative for Endangered Wildlife.

An avid fisherman, Field has a strong interest in conservation. He is active in various conservation organizations such as World Wildlife Fund, including serving as the Chairman of its National Council from 2002 until 2008. He is also a member of the Nature Conservancy, the Atlantic Salmon Federation and served as Chairman of the Board of Visitors of the Nicholas School of the Environment of Duke University from 2006 through 2009.

Upon retirement, Field has dedicated his time, talent and efforts to charitable and philanthropic efforts that align with his many passions which focus on the environment and  conservation issues, arts and culture, education, health care and advising the Marshall and Jamee Field Family Fund.

Sunny Fischer

Museum Board Service: National Public Housing Museum and Richard H. Driehaus Museum

Sunny Fischer is the Executive Director of The Richard Driehaus Foundation, and she has consulted for many other foundations including The Joyce Foundation (where she developed a funding program to raise immunization rates in Chicago’s neighborhoods), The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Chicago Community Trust. She has also worked with many non-profits directly, and in workshops or conferences, on fund-raising, board development, and program issues. From 1997 – 1999, she directed the City of Chicago/Cook County Welfare Reform Task Force. She has been full-time director of the Driehaus Foundation since 1999. The Driehaus Foundation makes grants primarily to organizations working to enhance the urban environment. The Foundation also supports the arts, and efforts to help residents become more economically and socially secure. She has served on NEA panels on design and on several architectural juries.

In the past, Sunny was a founding executive director of The Sophia Fund, one of the first private women’s foundations in the country, and was the co-founder of the Chicago Foundation for Women. She has worked on issues in domestic violence and sexual assault for more than 20 years, helping to found a shelter, a service for Jewish battered women, and co-authoring a study on ‘Police Response to Battered Women’s Complaints.’ She is past chair and continues to serve on the board the national Family Violence Prevention Fund and has served on the Leadership Committee of Rape Victims Advocates and the Advisory Committee of Chicago Project for Violence Prevention in Chicago. She has served on panels and as a speaker on issues of violence against women at many conferences, symposia, and meetings.

Other volunteer commitments include board membership on the National Family Violence Prevention Fund, vice chair of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law’s board, the executive committee of the National Public Housing Museum, and most recently she is a governor’s appointee to chair the board of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Numerous organizations have honored her for her work. Among them: the Association of Fundraising Professionals (Chicago Chapter) with Grantmaker of the Year award; Jewish Women International with the Perlman Humanitarian Award, and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, which gave her its “Point of Light” award. In 2006, she was presented with the Illinois Center for Violence Prevention’s “Vision to Action” award and in 2008, BPI presented her with the “Champion of the Public Interest” award.

Born in New York City, Sunny was educated at Hunter College of the City University of New York. Her Master’s degree is from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Services Administration.