Contact:
Brigid O’Brien
414.288.7445
brigid.obrien@marquette.edu
Marge Combe
414.665.1907
margecombe@northwesternmutual.com
MILWAUKEE – Marquette University and Future Milwaukee are pleased to announce a new partnership aimed at developing community leaders. Future Milwaukee, a greater Milwaukee non-profit organization that identifies, develops, places and supports community leaders, will affiliate themselves with Marquette University’s College of Professional Studies, a program that has been dedicated to meeting the unique educational needs of adult learners throughout southeastern Wisconsin since 1994.
In its 27 year history, Future Milwaukee’s flagship initiative, Leadership Milwaukee, has trained and helped to place over 12,000 community leaders who are active in non-profit, government, school-based and faith-based leadership positions.
Future Milwaukee Board President Marge Combe, Director of NMIS Operations at Northwestern Mutual, explained the need for the affiliation. “Future Milwaukee, as a non-profit organization with a small budget, experiences significant administrative overhead for its level of programming. Affiliation with a larger organization allows Future Milwaukee to focus on its premier experienced-based leadership training programs within a more economically viable delivery model. Marquette University’s College of Professional Studies promotes leadership development within individuals and throughout corporations, and, as a Jesuit institution, emphasizes leadership, ethics and a commitment to service that ‘gives back.’ The two programs are an excellent complement to each other. ”
Dr. Bob Deahl, Dean of the College of Professional Studies at Marquette, added, “Affiliating with Future Milwaukee further supports Marquette University’s continuing commitment to leadership and service development in communities both local and international. Locally, Marquette supports the development of neighborhood leaders through its relationship with the West Suburban Chamber Leadership Program and with the Urban Faith Roundtable. This is yet another way in which Marquette continues to emphasize leadership that gives back to the communities around us.”
Combe emphasized that by affiliating with Marquette, Future Milwaukee reaffirms its commitment to working with a broad range of local organizations in delivering excellent programming. “A large part of what makes the Leadership Milwaukee program so valuable to this community is its emphasis on diversity of culture, experience, age, and thought. Real community leadership requires working with people with widely varying opinions, born of diverse life experiences and outlook. This affiliation with Marquette will continue to assure that the diversity of our community is represented in our classes. We are pleased that Marquette is committed to working with us to assure that Future Milwaukee and its partner organizations remain a resource for the entire community.”
Over the next six months, the two organizations will develop a specific outline of the terms of their affiliation, and a legal structure to support the affiliation.
