Stewardship Report Prepared for BMO Harris Bank January 2022
Dear Friends, When I consider all the ways BMO Harris Bank has supported UWM over the past 20 years, three words come to mind: community, connections and conversations. At the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center, the BMO Harris Bank Social Innovation Programming has gotten conversations flowing throughout the UWM community. Social Good Morning gives students real-life examples of people who are making the world a better place, and Diverse Ideas connects students with entrepreneurial role models from divergent backgrounds. These interactions inspire our student entrepreneurs to take calculated risks as they transform their own ideas into reality. The office furnishings you gave UWM have refreshed our spaces, creating a welcome environment for our guests. Because UWM is a public university, we are ever mindful of our duty to be good stewards of the funding we receive, and for some time, redecorating has fallen down on our list of priorities. Your generous gift allowed us breathe life into several highly visible areas, and for that I am deeply grateful. These attractive and comfortable furnishings promote meaningful connections, foster our sense of community, and serve as a backdrop for important conversations. Your generous support of the LGBT Resource Center over the years has helped us welcome all students regardless of gender identification or sexual orientation. Your support was a key factor in UWM being named one of the top 25 LGBTQ-friendly campuses in the country. What an achievement! Your gifts have enabled us to launch workshops that stress inclusivity and maintaining UWM as a “safe space.” This has been incredibly important to me, and I know you share my passion for supporting our students, faculty and staff who are members of the LGBTQ+ community. I am deeply grateful for our partnership with BMO Harris Bank, and I am excited about all that we have accomplished. BMO Harris Bank has been a tremendous partner, providing students with internship opportunities, helping us inspire students by connecting them with innovators and advancing opportunities to strengthen our community. Thank you, and I look forward to our continued partnership as we look to the future.
MARK A. MONE
BMO HARRIS BANK AREAS OF SUPPORT $2,100
Lubar School $4,641 of Business $500 College of Minority Academic Health Sciences Achievement
$125
$15,000
Zilber School of Public Health
WUWM
$52,000
LGBT Resource Center
TOTAL $474,336
$249,970
Office Furnishings
$150,000
Social Innovation Programming
“The BMO Harris Bank Socially Innovative Programming has allowed us to turn a corner at the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center, where we are encouraging students to be not only successful business owners but impactful world changers as well. I am continually impressed by how our speakers engage audiences in the Social Good Morning and Diverse Ideas programs. On each occasion, I see students getting inspired as they imagine how they will launch their next great idea.” — BRIAN THOMPSON Director, Lubar Entrepreneurship Center President, UWM Research Foundation
SOCIAL GOOD MORNING Mark Fairbanks, the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center’s Entrepreneur in Residence of Social Innovation, hosts this series in which he interviews a local social innovator and fields questions from the audience. Held virtually during the 2020-21 academic year and both in person and virtually in 2021-22, the series included a full roster of people making a difference in the Milwaukee area. The following is a sample of events:
Date
Innovator
September 11, 2020
Ken Leinbach, executive director of the Urban Ecology Center
October 9, 2020
Tim Ehlinger, Laura Hermanns and students and alumni of UWM’s Sustainable Peacebuilding Program
November 13, 2020
Sharlen Moore, executive director of youth-led organization Urban Underground
December 11, 2020
Student stories from the Southeast Asian American Student Center
February 12, 2021
Victoria Ibiwoye, UWM Masters of Sustainable Peacebuilding student and founder and director of OneAfricanChild Foundation
March 12, 2021
Caitlin Cullen, owner of The Tandem restaurant, which provides free meals to the community
April 9, 2021
Portia Cobb, associate professor in UWM’s Peck School of the Arts, teaching fellow in the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center, and principal investigator of the Voices of Gun Violence Archive
April 30, 2021
Mfoniso Ekong, director of social impact for gener8tor’s Milwaukee office
September 10, 2021
Kadijiha Jones and Amber Thomas, founders of Brush Box, makers of art therapy projects with a superhero theme
October 8, 2021
Jeff Champeau, vice president of business development at Rishi Tea and Botanicals
November 12, 2021
Trudy Watt, assistant professor of architecture, who leads applied compassion workshops
December 10, 2021
MacArthur Antigua, senior director of collective impact, and Antoine Carter, director of neighborhood partnerships, both of Imagine MKE, a coalition of arts, culture and civic leaders
DIVERSE IDEAS In this series, the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center partners with other UWM centers across the university to bring global and local entrepreneurs and community innovators together with UWM students, faculty and staff. These speakers share their stories and offer advice to students from a variety of disciplines.
Date
Innovator
October 15, 2020
Citlatli Mendieta-Ramos, owner of Antigua Restaurant (cosponsor: Roberto Hernandez Center)
October 22, 2020
Angelique Sharpe, manager of Villard Avenue Business Improvement District (cosponsor: Black Student Cultural Center)
December 3, 2020
Jason Anderson from the Accessibility Resource Center and student Anna Bruckbauer (cosponsor: Accessibility Resource Center)
February 15, 2021
Alamelu Vairavan, host of Create TV’s “Healthful Indian Flavors with Alamelu” and founder and owner of Alamelu’s Culinary Enterprise (cosponsor: Women’s Resource Center)
February 24, 2021
Debbie Buchanan, Army veteran and executive director of the Milwaukee Homeless Veterans Initiative (cosponsor: Military and Veterans Resource Center)
April 29, 2021
Eddie Avila, director of Rising Voices, which is the outreach initiative of Global Voices (cosponsors: Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Institute of World Affairs, and Electa Quinney Institute)
October 29, 2021
Alison White, founder of Selfie Hop (cosponsor: Black Student Cultural Center)
November 5, 2021
Lina Sergie Attar, founder of Karma Foundation, which reimagines resources for Syrian refugees (cosponsor: Institute of World Affairs)
Hefter Conference Center Foyer
Chapman Hall 3rd Floor Conference Room
Hefter Conference Center Library