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| Maria Wynne ’77, Outstanding Alumni Award |
North Central College is honoring Maria Wynne of Chicago with a 2012 Outstanding Alumni Award.
Wynne and five others will be honored during the College’s Homecoming Convocation at 4:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, at North Central College’s Wentz Concert Hall at the Fine Arts Center, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville.
Wynne oversees the world’s largest Girl Scouts concern and is a leader and role model who influences the lives of nearly 86,000 girls in Chicago and Northwest Indiana. As CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, she led the merger of seven independent councils in 2008.
The reorganized council has experienced an increase in members, launched a new staffing structure and improved other systems for delivering services. These achievements have been recognized with several prestigious awards from area organizations, and Wynne was named Chicago Executive of the Year 2011 by the Public Relations Society of America and included among 100 Women Making a Difference by Today’s Chicago Woman magazine in 2011.
Prior to the Girl Scouts, Wynne was senior director for the office of citizenship and innovation for the U.S. Public Sector for Microsoft Corporation. Before that, she held other executive positions with Microsoft, Xerox and Ameritech.
At North Central, Wynne's work with the stage crew of the College’s Pfeiffer Hall fostered a passion for theatre and her role as a trustee at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. A North Central College Trustee since 2009, she also is active in the Donors Forum, as a board member for the National Taproot Foundation and as an advisory board member for the Chicago Innovation Awards.
Wynne earned a bachelor’s degree in art from North Central College in 1977. She holds a master of business administration degree from Northern Illinois University. She continued her executive development at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and Harvard Business School through the Center for Creative Leadership.
Others being honored on Oct. 26 are Outstanding Alumni Award recipients Priscilla Gallagher of Chicago, Fred Janzen of Ames, Iowa, and Eric McLaren of Aurora; Wall of Witness honoree Wayne Duehn of Arlington, Texas; and Alumni Recognition Award recipient Matthew Brill of Pottstown, Penn.
For more information about North Central’s 2012 Homecoming activities, visit northcentralcollege.edu/alumni/homecoming.