[6 minute read]
My purpose is to conn-ect.
I hail from a family of pioneers. Over a century ago my maternal grandfather rode in a covered wagon from Iowa to Oklahoma, finally settling down along the Oregon Trail in Western Nebraska. He became a sugar beet farmer and raised 4 daughters, all of whom went on for higher education. My dad, also from Western Nebraska, was the first in his family to go to college. Raised science-adjacent in Rochester, Minnesota, by a Mayo Clinic physician researcher and a nurse and volunteer extraordinaire, I learned at an early age about the excitement of being a scientist, as well as the generosity of grateful patients and visionary philanthropists. At the end of the Cold War, I studied Slavic Literature at Northwestern University, but my passion was being an institutional saleswoman, giving over 100 campus tours one summer for Northwestern’s admissions office. This led to meeting a couple who were development officers, and a first job in the development office at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. It was a great fit for me as I am naturally curious and a gregarious conversationalist. I quickly learned that I had a knack for articulating the complex research topics of the science and engineering faculty to potential donors to the university.
After taking time off paid work to raise my two kids, during which time I co-chaired Northwestern Memorial’s Children’s Research Institute’s most successful medical research gala to date, I landed a job as Director of Development for the Physical Sciences Division at the University of Chicago. In this role and later promotions I was the lead external person for the Dean of the Division for nearly a decade, formulating fundraising and marketing strategies for the various departments of this world-acclaimed division. I raised the funds for a new science building on campus, and created a $1million donors society, the Hubble Circle that included annual Astro Immersions, to support the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile. I loved walking through the faculty’s labs, learning about what motivated them to pursue such complex, long term theories and experiments. I also spent time with the students, learning about their challenges, which further inspired me to raise funds for more fellowships and new lab equipment and space.
When I became an empty nester, I decided to move to the west coast, which I had been traveling to nearly every month for many years to visit University of Chicago alumni and other funders. After settling in Seattle, I first worked for a bunch of astronauts out to save our planet from asteroid impacts at B612 Foundation. I pivoted their strategy which resulted 8 years later in an unprecedented identification of over 27,000 asteroids (none targeting Earth in the near future). This is a reminder that successful science includes asking new questions, taking risks, and being willing to change direction and work hard for often years before results are seen. The day before giving a TED talk on asteroids, I serendipitously sat next to renowned science philanthropist Marilyn Simons at a dinner party, which led to an introduction to her husband Jim Simons. This led to Jim setting up an interview with Science Philanthropy Alliance’s new president Marc Kastner who asked me to join the Alliance as employee number two.
This newly formed organization was the brainchild of six leading U.S. science foundation leaders who wanted to grow the number of philanthropies that were funding basic science research. I spent the next six years simultaneously building the organization into the premiere global resource on basic science philanthropy, and recruiting and training the first team of science philanthropy advisors. This team emerged as the first generation of trusted advisors to both new and established science givers. I worked closely with the Giving Pledge staff at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to convene the first learning session on basic science for Giving Pledgers which stimulated new relationships and significant new funding to science. I led the recruitment of over thirty global members to the Alliance and designed and facilitated the quarterly member meetings to build the community of funders and expedite their knowledge and network. I pioneered recruiting scientists to train them as science philanthropy fellows. By the time I became President of the organization, my team and I had influenced twenty new ultra-high-net-worth individuals and their staffs to devote a portion of their funding to basic science. Some of the notable organizations I worked with from their founding were Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Schmidt Futures, and the Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation. In its first five years, the organizational strategy I designed and the team I recruited at Science Philanthropy Alliance influenced over $1 billion in new private funding to basic science research.
Woven through my career in the traditionally male-dominated fields of science and science giving, I have been a champion for women scientists and women donors. Whether promoting women to boards, women on panels, or women trained in science philanthropy, I have been an active advocate for women. I was honored to serve for six years on the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Women in Science.
Another career-spanning activity is building communities, from the President’s Council at IIT, the Hubble Circle at the University of Chicago, membership in Science Philanthropy Alliance, and donor groups in ocean science, neurodegenerative diseases and influenza research. For over thirty years I have been active as a volunteer and a staff person with many reunion class gift committees at universities. Recently I have been active at my Episcopal church, Epiphany Seattle, re-invigorating the women’s group post-Covid. My other volunteer commitments also involve community building, actively building the community of advisors through my involvement with P150, a global philanthropy advisors collaborative. Finally, I’m building the community of women who support science by hosting science salons in my home.
As part of the “Great Resignation” during the Covid-19 pandemic, I took time off to discern my professional purpose, coincident with falling in love and building the next chapter of my life with a new spouse. I was determined to build a purpose-driven life, integrating my personal, spiritual and professional lives into a balanced whole, hopefully involving fewer airplanes.
Thus my consulting business, Future Science Now was born - because for the future of science we need to accelerate strategic philanthropy, now. I recognize that my purpose (and super-power) is conn-ecting people. Conn is literally my name! I lean into this asset by fielding inquiries for introductions, on a daily basis, from givers and scientists in my network. I am also actively building the community of advisors through my involvement with P150, a global philanthropy advisors collaborative. With a “giving while learning” approach, Future Science Now is uniquely positioned to bring both established givers and newly minted ultra-high-net-worth individuals into giving to science research, thus seeding the fields of science and technology for decades to come. No longer focused solely on basic science, my team of science and philanthropy experts and I are often the first stop for aspiring funders to science at any stage of their giving. We also are frequently intermediaries, by “advising the advisors” to the philanthropists, or to the scientists.
As a lifelong learner, I am a student of the history of philanthropy, and read numerous science and philanthropy publications, plus books and podcasts about women scientists. I have also treasured “science collectibles” (is that a genre?) that include a piece of the pile (a fragment of one of Enrico Fermi’s graphite rods used in the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction), a replica of a poster from Los Alamos, “Warning Cosmic Rays” and a meteorite. I am an avid downhill skier, swim with a “masters” group, practice ashtanga yoga, and for over three years have been a ritual cold water plunger every Friday. I have immersed myself on three continents in every imaginable body of water (lake, ocean, river, stream, pond, canal…), always flaunting a vintage green floral swim cap.
I have two recently married children plus two bonus step-children, and live with my husband Alec in Seattle, Washington. We also spend significant time on nearby Hood Canal, in San Francisco and in Livingston, Montana.