Giving Compass' Take:

• The Aspen Institute spotlights Maricar Ramos who has a background in philanthropy and is now the current Senior Manager for Workforce and Partnership Development at the Chicago Public Schools.

• How can Ramos' skills and training as a grantmaker translate to working in education? 

• Read about another longtime philanthropist: Duncan Campbell. 

A longtime philanthropic, public sector, and nonprofit professional, Maricar Ramos is currently the Senior Manager for Workforce and Partnership Development at the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). At CPS, Maricar manages a team responsible for providing work-based learning opportunities for 17,000 Chicago public school students and summer internships for 1500 Chicago youth in conjunction with the City of Chicago’s One Summer Chicago summer youth employment program.

She also serves as a workforce development liaison between CPS and external partners and previously led a citywide workforce development collaboration focused on increasing youth employment via targeted career pathways for Opportunity Youth.

Previous to her time at CPS, she was with the Mayer & Morris Kaplan Family Foundation, where she led the strategic planning process and revision of grant making priorities, including a scan of the current educational funding landscape, formation of external partnerships, RFP and grantee report design, and grant cycle implementation.

As a grant maker, Maricar was also the Financial Development Grant Manager for YMCA of the USA (Y-USA), the national resource office for the 2,600 YMCAs across the country. In this position for eight years, she administered $8 million in corporate and foundation grants annually, and developed strong relationships with corporate and foundation partners.

Maricar currently co-chairs the Racial Justice and Social Equity for Chicago Women In Philanthropy (CWIP) and the most recent past Co-Chair for its Board of Directors. She also serves on the Race & Equity Steering Committee for CPS and is a mentor for CWIP’s Women’s Leadership & Mentoring Program. Maricar’s personal passions center on education; women’s and children’s issues; diversity and inclusion; as well as social equity and justice.

Read the full article about a profile of Maricar Ramos at The Aspen Institute