Chicago Booth Pro Bono Consulting Opportunities through BANC

I am Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Guaranteed Rate, leading the Mergers and Acquisitions Group. My expertise is in predictive analysis, utilizing my unique background in technology and finance. After graduating from Booth, I was Managing Director of Global Investments at a private equity firm and led the Data Analytics and Business Intelligence practice at a consulting firm. Throughout my career, I have invested in domestic and international opportunities, sourced deals, assisted in the closing process and executed on management projections for both asset and platform level investments.

When I saw an email from BANC, I immediately knew that it was the perfect opportunity to give back. There are so many ways to give back. Instead of searching for a nonprofit that could use my expertise, BANC served as a funnel. BANC has a great cause and works with incredible organizations. I could trust it to find and validate projects that would benefit from Booth alumni skills.

Since my undergraduate days, I have been involved in giving back to the community. I am on the Executive Board of St. John the Baptist, Melkite Greek Catholic Church, and previously served on the board of the University of Chicago Booth Alumni Club. I also volunteer at a food pantry and serve as an adult tutor. BANC was different because it gave me the chance to work with other Booth alums.

I had a fantastic experience with BANC. I was part of a team analyzing potential early growth strategies for IMD Guesthouse, an organization that provides comfortable, affordable, temporary housing for patients and their families, and for military veterans receiving treatment at the Road Home Program at Rush. Members of the team had very diverse backgrounds, which I don’t typically get to work with in my normal work environment. I enjoyed working with people who brought different perspectives.

I have a very busy work schedule, but the clear expectations and communication made the time commitment very manageable. We met a couple of times in person but I was able to complete a majority of my assigned tasks around my time constraints. The project needs were a perfect match for my skills. I used my data and analytics background to create visuals from a large, flat, dataset, allowing us to see trends and make recommendations to the client.

The client was very happy with our analysis and recommendations. I am continuing to stay involved with BANC as a member of the Operations Committee, helping organize our databases to better reach out to alumni and nonprofits.

To anyone who is considering applying to BANC, my advice is: Get involved now! BANC works with great nonprofits, and you will get to meet and collaborate with terrific Booth alums. There are so many wonderful nonprofits in the Chicagoland area. Their need for help currently outweighs our resources. We need more Booth alums to volunteer for this wonderful cause.

Giving back gave me so much more in return.

I had been receiving and saving the BANC postcards for a few years, always hoping that I would find some way to prioritize making the time. I had a great interest in getting involved, but with a full-time career in marketing and two teenagers, extra time disappeared before I even realized I had it.

In early 2020, I took some time off from working. And fortuitously, a week later, an email from BANC arrived with a new set of projects! I applied, got engaged, and was eager to get started. Then, COVID hit and all projects were put on hold. Again, however, I was in the right place at the right time. BANC cofounders Gayle Haller and Judy Maley were interested in using the down time to tackle some marketing projects. I had a deep dive into all things BANC to help update the web site and partner with Dana Moran to launch a new BANC newsletter. Interviewing nonprofit leaders and alumni to learn and write about past projects filled my desire to learn more about the nonprofit world and understand how Booth alum were helping, yet further piqued my interest in participating on a project.

Finally in June, BANC decided to launch a project virtually and I joined the team. The National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) DuPage sought help building a strategic plan to support their mission of empowering all people impacted by mental health conditions to live life with purpose and meaning. The BANC team conducted one-on-one interviews; explored the mission, vision, and values; drilled into program details; and assessed financial and operational viability. Over six months, a diverse team of six Booth alum built an understanding of the situation that balanced market need, NAMI strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities, with the ability to execute and effectively serve local needs of the DuPage community. We did this all virtually, and three of us participated while also holding down full-time careers. Shifting gears to attend a weekly meeting and finding time to make my contributions to the project was never a burden. In fact, the experience sparked a passion that helped me bring additional curiosity and focus in my full time job. By stepping away from what I was working on to do something equally, if not more, challenging and interesting, I was able to bring more to my work across the board.

I sought out BANC to fill a void and desire to give back. To apply what I’ve learned in decades of healthcare and B2B analytics marketing to a nonprofit organization that was doing good in the world. What I completely underestimated was how much the experience would give back to me, from connecting with Booth alum to bringing back so many elements of what I loved being a Booth student: the challenge of lightning speed learning, critical thinking and dialog across a team with varied experience and perspective, and working with people who share a passion for a data-driven approach. If you’re thinking about participating in a BANC project, don’t wait!

I am currently a process design project manager on the strategy and integration team supporting Google’s people operations. Prior to Google, I worked at Disney, managing a project to centralize HR operations and supporting theme park operations and efficiency in an internal consulting capacity. I also have experience in operations consulting at McKinsey & Company and in manufacturing and distribution at Pepperidge Farm and General Motors.

My motivation for joining BANC was simple: I was looking for an opportunity to give back and do work that differed from my day-to-day job. I am a single mom of three and am acutely aware of the importance of modeling how they can engage in service to others. I was actively engaged in community service as a student. Seeing the impact that BANC made was very gratifying. Given the magnitude of issues facing the world in 2020, BANC allowed me to exemplify that small actions can add up to big impact. I am so proud of that.

Loaves & Fishes offers fresh food and meals for needy families, and our BANC team was asked to estimate the need so that we could better understand how much of it was being satisfied by the nonprofit. The project was a great fit, as I have extensive experience in food manufacturing and warehousing. I learned a ton about market sizing from other team members, and throughout the project I was impressed with the expertise and broad experience of my fellow alumni. It was a great reminder of the resources that we have within the Booth community. Our project team brought back the team-meeting feel of my B-school experience, when we were able to debate big problems with intelligent and engaged people invested in finding the best answer.

Since my BANC project wrapped, I have joined the Diversity and Inclusion Alumni Task Force at Booth to boost alumni engagement among underrepresented groups. I’ve also served as a speaker at several women-focused events for current students.

My advice to Booth alumni considering applying for a project is simple: Don’t wait! I wish I had done it sooner. It is easy to come up with reasons why it won’t work: You don’t have time. You aren’t experienced enough. You’re too experienced. You don’t remember the fundamentals of microeconomics. What I can tell you is that the important reasons for being part of BANC go deeper than the immediate impact on the organization you are partnered with. It may be the satisfaction of seeing your expertise applied somewhere new, or in working through the discomfort of the lack of expectation that you are an expert. The lasting impact on you is what will bring you back for the second project.

I like to say I am one of the few people I know who uses what I learned in school all the time—decades later. I had an aptitude and interest in math and business, and when I took my first college course in marketing research, it was like a light bulb went on. I loved it and knew I wanted to make a career of it. More than 30 years later, I am still in the sector, working in marketing analytics and forecast, primarily with consumer products companies.

After completing my MBA at Booth, I worked in a variety of analytical research roles supporting marketing and sales at Helene Curtis (now part of Unilever) and Kraft Foods. When I left Kraft to start my own business in 2002, I also considered teaching or nonprofit work. Although I didn’t end up working in the nonprofit sector at that time, I’m a very active volunteer. I’ve been volunteering weekly since April 2020 at the Lakeview Pantry and have been a community educator for the Alzheimer’s Association since 2019. My longest-standing volunteer role has been as a docent with the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC), since 1997. I've also stayed involved with Booth and the University of Chicago since graduation, participating in various alumni clubs and even giving tours of the University of Chicago campus for the CAC. When I saw the call for BANC volunteers in the summer of 2016 for a market-research-focused project for a theater company, I knew it was for me—I love data, I love the theater, and I was eager to apply my skills to serve a nonprofit.

I have found it very rewarding to apply my analytical skills to benefit BANC’s nonprofit clients. And I haven’t stopped. Since my first BANC project for Court Theatre, I’ve led projects for Prevent Blindness, One Million Degrees, and IMD Guest House. As a current member of BANC’s steering committee, I’ve been part of a small task force working on a strategic plan for the organization.

For me, one of the best things about BANC is learning about the workings of our nonprofit clients and their specific sectors. The projects I have worked on have varied across the arts, education, and health care, all of which interest me. For example, I helped develop a tour for the blind at the CAC, which later enhanced my work as project leader developing a data dashboard for the Prevent Blindness BANC project. I also believe getting to know other Booth alumni not from my own class or industry has greatly expanded my personal resources.

If you’re looking for new ways to apply your business skills in a way that helps people, I would highly recommend BANC. The challenges of the pandemic have heightened the need for nonprofit services, and BANC provides a unique opportunity that connects Booth grads with rich, meaningful opportunities to contribute to society.

I arrived in Chicago in the fall of 1967 at a time when social unrest was at a very high level. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing; the Civil Rights Act had been recently enacted and faced substantial backlash in many parts of the country.

Earlier, JFK asked what we could do for the country and oversaw the creation of the Peace Corps; LBJ was building the Great Society; Martin Luther King was at his height of influence; people like James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and many others had been raising the consciousness among impressionable youth, and I had just finished a senior thesis on the benefits of the Job Corps.

So when I reached Chicago, I had mixed emotions about attending a business school when I was concerned about society. This was exacerbated when I saw the disparity in the economic and social conditions between [neighboring communities] Hyde Park and Woodlawn. Fortunately, I found others (Don Altvater and Bob Davidson) who felt as I did and together we formed Project One, an organization that enlisted GSB students who were interested in consulting with Woodlawn small businesses on a pro bono basis to help with accounting, inventory control, marketing, and other skills that we could employ. The experience was extremely rewarding.

Flash forward to 2015. I was retiring from a marketing/consumer insights career and I received an email from Booth/Rustandy regarding an opportunity to consult one-on-one with a nonprofit executive. I took advantage of that opportunity, enjoyed it, and was steered to BANC.

Over the past four years, I have worked on three projects as a project leader (or co-leader) and again found that my business experiences allowed me to select project team members who, together, would be able to deliver solid recommendations to our clients. I have found great satisfaction in being able to help nonprofits with the issues that our teams addressed, and I really enjoyed making contact with very smart and interesting younger Booth alumni who were able to teach me new ways of looking at issues based on their unique experiences.

More recently, I have been very active on BANC’s steering committee. Working with very talented cohorts, I feel we are helping BANC set a structure and agenda that will help to ensure future success—enabling other alumni not only to gain satisfaction from giving back to the community, but also to strengthen their ties to Chicago Booth and the university in general. I had been quite removed from Booth, but the fellow alumni I have met over the past few years instilled a greater pride in the school I attended so long ago. I highly recommend BANC to all alumni interested in helping to make a difference and expanding their professional contacts and Chicago Booth relationships.

“Brain food.” That’s the phrase that hooked me when I first talked to Judy Maley and Gayle Haller about BANC. I was interviewing for the pilot project, a test case for how BANC would be received by alumni and by the nonprofit community. After a career as a foreign correspondent, a marketing consultant, and a brand strategist, I was a stay-at-home mom with young twins. The idea of using my Booth skills, meeting other alumni, and helping local nonprofits was irresistible.

Here’s the secret though. I wasn’t just helping the nonprofits. I was helping my future self too. I am currently in the process of launching a new business, hivve.world, a curated look at virtual events worldwide. BANC was the first step that brought me back into the world of business.

Booth is one of a few business schools that is trying to help alumni who stepped off the career path with a relaunch program. BANC is a rare program that actively advertises that it welcomes applications from alumni at all stages in their lives—those working full time or part time, those between jobs, those who are retired, and those who are stay-at-home parents.

The result is an interesting mix of alumni with a common desire to give the very best to the client. Our client on the pilot project was the Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC). The project was fascinating, requiring us to quickly understand and segment the customer base and provide specific recommendations. We were a group of strangers on the team, connected by our experience as Booth alumni. Over the course of more than six months, we bonded over our diverse backgrounds and worked well together to deliver an extremely well-received report.

I was picked for the project because my background in brand strategy, marketing, and reporting was a good fit for the client’s needs. As I contributed, I also learned from my teammates—fresh ways to craft surveys and analyze data and to present our findings on paper and in person, and the subtle skill of getting everyone on the same page in a cordial manner. It reminded me of the give-and-take of group projects on campus.

I continue to volunteer with BANC as a member of the steering committee. As I met more BANC volunteers, I realized that I was not the only one who benefited from participating in a BANC project. BANC fulfills a need for connections, to give back and to grow in confidence. Here’s the data to prove it: despite everything that we all juggle, as many as 25 percent of BANC alums re-up for another project. Several serve on boards of nonprofits.

As an entrepreneur, I have a lot on my plate every day now. And it all started with Judy, Gayle, and the promise of brain food at BANC.

Since my time at Booth, my career has been in strategy and operations consulting, business process improvement, and acquisition integration. Throughout this time, though, I found myself thinking more and more about different ways to get involved with volunteering and work with nonprofits.

When I got the email from BANC announcing the first round of projects in 2015, it was clear that this was the right opportunity at the right time. Recently, I had begun working independently as a consultant and felt that I had the right amount of time and flexibility in my schedule to take on a BANC project. I applied and was selected for one of the first projects, with the Women’s Business Development Center. The WBDC is a motivated, mission-driven group, and they placed strong emphasis on getting the most out of the project. Working with the BANC team on the WBDC project was such a good experience, it led me to want to work on more BANC projects. I was a consultant on a second project for the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, and then became a project leader for the Urban Autism Solutions project.

All the teams that I have had the pleasure of working with, both the Booth team members and the nonprofit client team members, have been really great. The client teams have all been very committed to their organizations and their missions, and that energy and commitment really runs through the entire project. I think our Booth teams have brought and also honed their skills in areas from finance and analytics to marketing and communications to the building of business plans to organizational alignment. The projects have been interesting and varied.

Another bonus from volunteering with BANC: it increased my engagement with the Booth community. I’ve met so many Booth alumni that I would likely not have crossed paths with, with such a broad range of experiences, backgrounds, and graduation years. A couple of years ago, I accepted an invitation to join the BANC steering committee and appreciate the opportunity to stay involved and work on internal BANC projects that shape the future of the BANC organization. I also became a mentor at UChicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. I was introduced to this opportunity through a BANC connection.

If you are on the fence about applying for a BANC project, I would highly recommend you do it. I have found that so many skills from the corporate world are transferable to the nonprofit world. Both sectors are trying to do similar things, just approaching it a little differently for obvious reasons; the framework and methodologies are just as applicable. I have a ton of respect and gratitude for BANC and the opportunities it gives to others and unique contributions itmakes to nonprofits here in the Chicago area.

I built my career in banking and small-business lending. About six years ago, a former manager of mine told me about the Rustandy Center’s On Board conference. I attended that conference and got engaged in various nonprofit activities, which I have found so satisfying personally. I joined the board of Connections for the Homeless and got involved in several committees, including the executive committee and strategic planning committee. I also got heavily involved in their program of advocacy for more affordable housing in our Evanston community. In addition, I went back to school to get a nonprofit management certificate to give myself a firmer base of knowledge of the nonprofit world, including board leadership, fundraising, and key industry trends.

My first BANC project was with the Women’s Business Development Center, which wanted a strategic review of their microlending program. It was great to work with other alumni on this project. I found it very rewarding to use my 25 years of small-business lending experience to help them with an important strategic decision—how to grow their microloan portfolio to meet the growing need for capital by women and minority entrepreneurs while minimizing the risks of that growth. We recommended an approach using a government lending program, plus some new risk controls and governance enhancements. The board seemed very pleased with our recommendations and they began implementing them right after the project concluded.

I am now just getting started with a new BANC project, which will be focused on helping StreetWise magazine develop a new social enterprise. This new enterprise will help them to serve their clients in new ways and also bring in new revenues. I have been a supporter of StreetWise for at least 10 years, and its mission of serving the highly vulnerable homeless population is near and dear to my heart. I am looking forward to brainstorming with our team to identify a social enterprise that will work for StreetWise’s client base and help the organization expand their services.

Lastly, I've also joined BANC’s steering committee. Among other initiatives, I’m working with several other alumni in planning a fifth-year celebration of BANC. So far, BANC has completed 24 projects for nonprofits in the Chicago area and 132 Booth alums have participated as consultants in these projects. We have a lot to celebrate!

I worked at Baxter International for over a decade, first as a microbiologist and then in business development. I off-ramped to raise my family but decided to return to a career in 2016. While I had done plenty of volunteering during my time off, I didn’t think about the need to build transferable skills or to keep my resume current, so felt there was an initial hurdle to overcome.

I attended the Booth ReLaunch workshop, which helped me start thinking about what I was looking for and how I could demonstrate valuable skills through my volunteer work. BANC was a great stepping-stone and a way for me to fill the hole in my resume. My project with One Million Degrees, a nonprofit that helps students in Chicago community colleges, allowed me to demonstrate concrete skills—critical thinking, research, working in groups, data analysis, jumping into a new organization, evaluating problems, and creating recommendations. After being out for two decades, I gained new skills and could learn and apply them right away. Working with my Booth group was also an incredible experience; everyone was generous with their time and knowledge, and it was great to be surrounded by alumni.

I credit my BANC project as critical for having received a job offer with Fermilab, where I now work. My first experience was so positive that I chose to work on a second project with Prevent Blindness, which provides information on eye care and eyesight. Ultimately, I’ve loved staying connected to Booth through BANC. It was a rewarding experience, and I’m grateful for the opportunities it provided me.