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Executive Education

Adjunct Lecturer of Executive Education

Portrait of Anne Cohn Donnelly, Faculty at the Kellogg School of Management
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Anne Cohn Donnelly is an Adjunct Lecturer in Executive Education at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She has taught nonprofit management with a focus on board governance in the school's Executive Education courses as well as its graduate programs. She established the school's Board Fellows Program and served as its founding Academic Director. In addition, she works with a number of nonprofits on issues such as child abuse and child health well being.

Dr. Donnelly was the Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse America (formerly the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse) from the fall of 1980 though the summer of 1997. During this time she launched the Healthy Families America Initiative. Prior to this, she served as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. At the time of her selection she was a Congressional Science Fellow in the office of the Honorable Albert Gore, Jr. sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Born in Evanston, Illinois, Dr. Donnelly received a B.A. degree in sociology from the University of Michigan, an M.A. in Medical Sociology from Tufts University and both the M.P.H. and D.P.H. degrees in health administration and planning from the University of California (Berkeley) School of Public Health.

As Associate and member of the Board of Directors at Berkeley Planning Associates, Dr. Donnelly designed and directed the first national evaluation study of child abuse and neglect treatment programs. She has lectured and published widely and this and subsequent research and policy issues and she has appeared frequently on national and local TV and radio shows. She has received numerous distinctions from her peers for her work including the Vincent de Francis Award, the Brandt Steele Award, the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Distinguished Service Award, the Outstanding Professional Award from the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, and award bearing her name from Prevent Child Abuse America.

She has been a member of numerous national and international boards and is currently serving on the boards of: Sinai Health Systems, BoardSource, Cook County Justice for Children, and GlobeMed. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.


About Anne
Research interests
  • Administration and planning; board governance; nonprofit management
Teaching interests
  • board governance; strategic planninng; nonprofit management
  • DPH, 1975, Health Administration, University of California, Berkeley
    MPH, 1972, Health Administration, University of California, Berkeley
    MA, 1970, Medical Sociology, Tufts University
    BA, 1967, Sociology, University of Michigan
  • Senior Lecturer in Social Enterprise, Center for Nonprofit Management, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1997-present
    Academic Director, Kellogg Board Fellows Program, Northwestern University, 2003-2011
    Lecturer, Public Health, University of California (Berkley), 1975-1978
  • Exectuive Director, National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, 1980-1997
    Special Asst. to the Secretary, United States Department of Health & Human Services, 1979-1980
    Legislative Aide, Office of the Hon. Albert Gore Jr., 1978-1979
    Associate and Principal Investigator, Berkeley Planning Associates, 1973-1978
    Project Research Director, Technical Education Research Center, 1968-1970