Sharon Bush
President
Sharon Bush has over 20 years of nonprofit and business experience. She is the President of Grand Victoria Foundation. She is only the second person to lead the Foundation in its 25-year history.
Sharon is a recognized leader in the field who strongly values the economic and social contributions of the nonprofit sector. Throughout her career she has worked to ensure that the sector is strong, equitable, sustainable, and highly capable of serving individuals and families throughout the Chicago region. She has launched, led, and participated in innovative collaborations that have resulted in thousands of people securing employment and millions of dollars to support the regional workforce system.
In 2021, Sharon joined the Board of Trustees of Roosevelt University, a community of educators, scholars, and learners committed to academic, creative, and service excellence. She was recently appointed to the Chicago Fed Advisory Council on Small Business, Community and Economic Development, Agriculture and Labor, comprised of diverse leaders who advise the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago leadership about issues impacting their industries and communities. Sharon is Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of ABFE, a national philanthropic organization that advocates for responsive and transformative investments in Black communities. She is on the steering committee of We Rise Together, a public-private coalition to support a just and equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in the Chicago Region and she chairs the Leadership Advisory Committee of Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Chicago. Sharon is an advisor to Greater Good Studio, a human-centered design firm that builds the capacity of communities to solve old problems in new ways. She was a member of the Illinois COVID-19 Steering Committee and co-chaired the Grantmaking Working Group.
Sharon was an Association of Black Foundation Executives Connecting Leaders Fellow. She also is a former co-chair of Chicago African Americans in Philanthropy and the 2017 recipient of its Champion of Diversity Award. She has been a featured Op-Ed columnist in the Chronicle of Philanthropy on race and equity and Crain’s Chicago Business on diversity and leadership. She is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and The Chicago Network.
Sharon was born and raised in Chicago. She has a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Public Administration from Roosevelt University.