Laila Rashid named vice president for Medical Center Development

October 19, 2011

Laila M. Rashid has been appointed vice president and associate dean for Medical Center development at the University of Chicago. She has served in this role on an interim basis since January 2011.

Rashid has been with the University of Chicago since 2004 when she left the University of California to become director of principal gifts. She has held other titles at the Medical Center, including senior director of campaign readiness, chief development officer for campaigns and, from July 2010 to January 2011, associate vice president for development.

"Laila Rashid has the experience, institutional knowledge, management acumen, leadership skills and drive we need to move forward on an ambitious agenda," said Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, dean and executive vice president for medical affairs. "We conducted a rigorous national search for this position and interviewed a range of impressive candidates from many institutions, but it became clear that Laila was the top candidate."

Despite the recent recession and slow recovery, which have taken a toll on donations to medical and educational institutions nationwide, the Medical Center development team raised more than $120 million in fiscal year 2011, the institution's second highest annual total.

"This was due in no small part to Laila's leadership," Polonsky said.

Rashid said she felt honored by the appointment.

"The physicians and scientists at the University of Chicago Medical Center are known for their remarkable scholarship and creativity, which are tied to a compelling institutional mission," Rashid said. "Their ideas, vision, and enthusiasm can have a broad impact, changing the way the world thinks about health, the practice of medicine, and fundamental biomedical issues. It is an honor and tremendously exciting to work with them in this new role."

Rashid has worked in educational philanthropy since 1997, when she joined the development team at UCLA as a specialist in fundraising for the university's libraries, a program she directed from 2000 to 2004. She and her husband, Jeffrey Grogger, PhD, the Irving Harris Professor in Urban Policy at the University's Harris School of Public Policy, came to Chicago in October 2004, when he joined the faculty and she was named director of principal gifts for the Medical Center. They live in Hyde Park with their 14-year-old son, Miles Grogger, a high-school freshman at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.