The Field Foundation’s Angelique Power is moving on to helm Detroit’s Skillman Foundation
By Darcel Rockett
The Field Foundation’s Board of Directors announced that its president Angelique Power will step down July 23. Power, a Chicago native, will take the lead role with the Detroitbased Skillman Foundation, a 61-year-old, educationfocused private foundation beginning Sept. 13.
Power has been president at the Field Foundation since 2016, where she arrived after serving as program director at the Joyce Foundation. Since taking the helm at Field, Power is noted for having transformed the foundation’s funding structure to center racial equity, and forged innovative strategic partnerships that enabled Field to double its giving and expand its programming. Since 2016, the Field Foundation has distributed more than $4.5 million annually in grants across Chicagoland in the areas of art, justice, leadership investment, and media and storytelling. Power also championed and added mission-related investing to Field’s endowment.
Power admits she was not looking to leave the Field Foundation — established by Marshall Field III in 1940 to provide support for community, civic and cultural organizations in the Chicago area. But she said the pandemic changed all of us, including her.
“During the course of the pandemic, I started to think about, how do I make sense of the time that I have on the planet?” she said in a phone interview Monday. “We all had loss; I have loss in my own family. When this opportunity came to me and being asked to imagine with this fantastic organization what the next chapter could look like? The concept of centering youth, especially Black and brown youth in terms of lifting their voice and centering their power, just overtook me and I felt called at this moment to do this work.”
Power said going to work in Michigan is a homecoming of sorts, as she spent many of her summers in Michigan growing up and her college years at the University of Michigan. She said now feels like a fortuitous moment where we are being called to perform, to act, to seek different things and to align one’s needs to what the world needs, which makes this the perfect time to make a move from Field to Skillman.
Looking at her work in Chicago while at Field, Power said operationalizing racial justice for the past five years is something that she’s been honored to do.
“Racial justice is a term that’s thrown around these days — there’s an understanding that it needs to be said, but there’s a lack of an understanding of how it is done,” Power said. “What I’m so proud of is operationalizing that work, pushing the boundaries of philanthropy to fund individuals, and for-profit media organizations, creating so many partnerships with the MacArthur Foundation,
with the Democracy Fund, and the Chicago Community Trust.
“Beyond funding partnerships, I see myself as a notorious collaborator,” she said. “In many ways, I feel that, while Field Foundation has been extremely important, the walls fell away from Field, and I feel like I worked as an ensemble member with people across the city on these issues that are so important. That’s really what I carry with me. Legacy is such a heavy word; who knows what that will be, but what I carry with me are those pieces.”
Mark Murray will lead the Field Foundation as it conducts a nationwide search for its next president. Power won’t be a part of that search. Murray has been with the foundation since 2003 and most recently was the vice president of programs and administration. In his role, Murray has managed the Field Foundation’s operations, programs and grant-making and in 2020 led the Foundation’s relocation to the FBRK Impact House, a collaborative, philanthropic and nonprofit workspace designed for collaboration.
Field Foundation Board President Gloria Castillo said a search committee will be pulled together very quickly to identify the right firm to help find Field’s next leader. She has no firm date when that will be complete, but said she imagines what’s most important is not the timing but the right person.
“There’s no question that Angelique ... she’s a rock star,” Castillo said. “I knew it the day that I met her. I believe it today. She will not be easy to succeed, I can promise you that. But I also know, one of the things that we’ve learned in Field leaders is that there’s a lot of talent. There are incredibly talented people with a vision of racial equity who understand community.
“That nationwide search, I have no doubt will uncover another great talented person, and because we have a board that is so committed, I think we will attract people who really want to work with Field. We’ve created a good deal of change in Chicago and I think we will be an attractive proposition.”