MOD Society Greensboro - Sept-Oct 2020
PHILANTHROPY’S FIRST LADY
2020-08-29 08:24:33
Jacquie Gilliam is fearless, feisty and loads of fun. She’s also a big believer in leaps of faith. Not your average puddle-hoppers, mind you. We’re talking audacious, Olympic-size strides like the one that brought her to Greensboro five years ago.
Jacquie is a California girl, born and raised. She and her family (husband Frank, daughter Ariel and son Trey) were living the dream in Los Angeles. They could walk to the beach, enjoy random celebrity sightings and spend sunny days with family and friends. But when Frank was named Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) in 2015, they packed up and headed South.
Jacquie then commenced a year-long, cross-country commute. Before Jacquie became the first lady of UNCG, she was a first-rate development officer specializing in academia. She worked for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as Executive Director of Scholarships, Student Support and Campus-Wide Initiatives, a title that seemed to expand every six months over the course of a distinguished career.
The Gilliams’ move to Greensboro came during an ambitious fundraising campaign at UCLA. Jacquie’s portion of the $3 billion campaign goal was $1 billion (yep, that’s billion with a “b”) that she committed to achieving before she put down permanent roots in the red clay of North Carolina. She delivered the goods in typical Jacquie fashion by “thinking differently, being creative and taking leaps of faith.”
She shares an example that seems perfectly, fortuitously Hollywood-scripted. She wrote a letter to Chuck Lorre, producer of the television hit “The Big Bang Th eory,” expecting it might very well end up in the trash. Instead, Jacquie and a colleague were invited to meet with Mr. Lorre to discuss what a scholarship program for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) students might look like. Not only did he agree to start an endowment for students from middle-income families, he invited Jacquie to pitch to the entire “Th e Big Bang Th eory” cast and crew. Individuals associated with the series, from stars to producers, writers, crew and partners such as Warner Brothers Television, CBS, and United Talent Agency all contributed to “Th e Big Bang Th eory” Scholarship Endowment at UCLA for undergraduate scholars in STEM fields.
Th ere were plenty of other instances of out-of-the-box thinking and over-the-fence hits, including the time she convinced a conservative Ronald Reagan protégée to support undocumented students. Or when her launch of the UCLA Parent/Family Program became a national model for helping families participate appropriately in their student’s experience and engage effectively with the university and other parents. Or her efforts to ensure students from foster care backgrounds receive the support and tools they need to succeed. Th e key to her success? “Really listening to people, hearing them, gaining consensus so people don’t just buy in to the change you’re proposing, they own it.”
Jacquie reached her $1 billion goal, left a legacy of positive, progressive change at UCLA and headed to Greensboro for good.
It’s been very good indeed for both the newcomer and her new home city. Jacquie was quick to settle in and find her Greensboro groove. “Th is city, our city,” she says, “has a wide-open door and a big welcome mat.”
It helped that Jacquie is innately curious, social, and outgoing. “If you know me, you know I’m going to talk with everyone!” she says with a laugh. “It’s just who I am.” She also decided early on to roll up her sleeves, dig in and get involved. “I started thinking like a farmer. Because until you get your hands in the dirt, you don’t feel like it’s your land.”
She focused on civic needs that sparked her passion: arts and culture, underserved communities and science. In turn, her passion has sparked good things for Greensboro. Jacquie serves as vice chair of the ArtsGreensboro Board of Directors and on the board for the Weatherspoon Art Foundation.
She co-chaired (with Greensboro City Council member Nancy Hoff mann) the Greensboro Cultural Arts Master Plan Task Force called Creative Greensboro, the city’s visionary master plan for the arts. Th e plan bears Jacquie’s signature style, starting with its collaborative information-gathering phase that involved the input of more than 2,000 residents, to its aspirational scope of charting a long-term, sustainable path for Greensboro’s arts and cultural sector.
Jacquie’s love for science (she started out as a chemistry major in college before turning to the social sciences) led her to serve on the boards of the Greensboro Science Center and the North Carolina Aquarium Society.
She also serves on the board of directors for the United Way of Greater Greensboro, and Jacquie and Frank actively support the Spartan Open Pantry program that provides meals and food resources for students in need.
In 2018, Jacquie launched “Toys for Joy,” an annual holiday luncheon for women from the UNCG Board of Trustees and other female leaders. “I noticed right away that here in the South, women—your Steel Magnolias—are key to getting things done.” So, she tapped a few hundred of her new friends to donate holiday toys for children in need and partnered with charitable organizations including the Children’s Home Society, the United Way’s Success Center, the YWCA, and the Salvation Army.
Th at level of active leadership might exhaust others, but it seems to energize and inspire Jacquie. “Th e boat doesn’t move forward unless everyone rows. I’m trying to row and do my part to make our community all that it can be.”
It hasn’t been all hustle and bustle, though. Jacquie has found time to slow down and enjoy her new place and chapter. She appreciates the city’s ease of living, abundance of cultural offerings and array of parks and green spaces. “I love the fact that Greensboro is a 20-minute town,” she says with delight, recalling the first time Frank came home for lunch. “I thought he must be sick, showing up in the middle of the day like that. In L.A., we lived seven miles from campus, but it could take two hours to get to work. Th ere was no coming home for lunch.”
Another “aah” moment came when the couple were exploring downtown, walking hand-in-hand. “All of a sudden I looked at Frank and said, ‘We’re strolling. We’ve never strolled a day in our lives!’”
Jacquie has grown to enjoy fried green tomatoes, a really good biscuit and, after some initial skepticism, pimento cheese. (“It is not the most attractive food!” she says.) She has a bit of Steel Magnolia in her background, too. She tells of family ancestors migrating from the South to California, her grandmother making sure she had three sizes of cast iron skillets and her natural ability to make Southern-style gravy. “Frank teases that I’m a country girl at heart, and I guess I am!”
Frank and Jacquie love giving friends who visit the “Gilliam tour,” and showing off their new hometown. The couple graciously share their university residence as well, which Jacquie says is meant to be used and enjoyed by the entire university community. When they arrived in 2015, they hosted an open house for every staff and faculty member. Last year they hosted a total of 6,000 visitors at various university functions.
It’s no surprise that one of Jacquie’s favorite duties involves visiting the Weatherspoon’s vault and selecting art pieces to be showcased in the Chancellor’s residence. “There are so many incredible pieces,” she says, including a recent abstract expressionist find painted by actor Robert De Niro’s father, Robert De Niro, Sr.
Art brings people together, she believes, and defines our sense of place. Jacquie Gilliam does that, too. She brings people together, builds community, and takes amazing, trailblazing leaps of faith.
– Lucinda Trew, editor
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