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
• Cleo F. Wilson

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 was the Executive Director of The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation from 1992-2013, and Sunny Fischer was the Executive Director of The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation from 1992-2013, and she has consulted for many other national and local foundations. She has served on NEA panels on design and on several architectural juries.

Sunny was Governor Pat Quinn’s appointee to chair the board of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency from 2008-2013, and in that capacity chaired the board of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. She is a founding and current board member of The Richard H. Driehaus Museum and a founder of the National Public Housing Museum, whose board she currently chairs.

Numerous organizations have honored her for her work. Among them: the Association of Fundraising Professionals (Chicago Chapter) with Grantmaker of the Year award; National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, which gave her its “Point of Lightning” award. Most recently, she received the Influencer Award, from Landmarks Illinois, that recognizes “community leaders…that promote a diverse, equitable, and accessible preservation movement across the state.”

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.

Cleo F. Wilson

Museum Board Service: Intuit Art Museum (Board Member and Former Executive Director)

Cleo Wilson is a rare board member, having functioned as both a funder and a grantee, a museum board member and museum staff member. She is a founding board member of Intuit Art Museum (IAM) and served as board president from 2002-2006.  In 2006, she was appointed Executive Director, a position she held until 2012. Wilson returned to the board of directors, where she has served in various leadership positions and is now a life trustee. She remains a committed advocate for the importance of diversity and inclusion efforts for museums.

Prior to serving on the Intuit staff, Wilson served for 25 years as the Executive Director of the Playboy Foundation, a corporate giving program of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. 

Wilson has served as a trustee of several nonprofit Boards of Directors, including the Arts Alliance Illinois, American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois(serving as vice president from 1997 to 2004), and AIDS Foundation of Chicago (serving as president from 1990 to 1993). She has participated on a variety of state and municipal grant-review panels, including the Illinois Arts Council, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs City Arts Fund, Evanston Arts Council and the Propeller Fund.

Listed in Who’s Who Among African Americans and Who’s Who Among American Women, Wilson was inducted into the Black Woman Hall of Fame in recognition of her community service. Wilson’s honors include: “Friend for Life” by the Howard Brown Medical Center; “Phenomenal Woman Award” from Chicago’s Expo for Today’s Black Woman, in recognition of her leadership and dedication to community issues; AIDS Foundation of Chicago for her “leadership, compassion and generosity;” Handy L. Lindsey Award for Inclusiveness in Philanthropy; the Edwin A. Rothschild Civil Liberties Award for her “persistent and clear voice in defense of civil liberties;”and the Community Engagement, Community Service, and Community Organizing Award from the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Illinois Chicago. In October 2010, Wilson was inducted into HistoryMakers, the single largest archival collection of interviews of both well-known and unsung African American history makers.