Monique Brunson Jones, currently director of programs at the Chicago Foundation for Women, has been named by the Board of Directors to be the new president and CEO of the Evanston Community Foundation, effective Nov. 2.
She will replace Sara Schastok, the organization’s first fulltime president, who is retiring at the end of the year.
In making the announcement Monday, ECF Board Chair Mike Brody lauded Jones as an executive who “brings the right combination of experience, skills, and passion to lead the foundation into its next exciting period of growth and development.”
At CFW, Jones has managed the organization’s grant program, which awards annual grants of $2.5 million, and has worked with CFW staff to raise funds and develop major gifts.
Before she took her present job, Jones was director of the Office of Violence Prevention in the Cook County Department of Health and served in clinical and management positions with the Jane Adams Hull House Association.
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During her 15-year tenure at ECF, when the organization was a small affiliate of Evanston United Way, Schastok has seen the foundation’s assets grow from less than $3 million to about $20 million, with annual distributions from its funds of about $2.5 million.
Jones said she is “humbled and excited to lead the ECF team and engage the Evanston community in the next phase of growth. I’m looking forward to the opportunities that await and am appreciative of the vote of confidence I’ve received thus far.”
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