Laurie M. Tisch
2020 Manhattan Jewish Hall of Fame Inductee
Biography
Laurie M. Tisch is the President of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. The Illumination Fund is organized around a core mission of increasing access and opportunity for all New Yorkers and fostering healthy and vibrant communities, using an equity lens to develop initiatives and to issue grants. Since she started the foundation in 2007, the Illumination Fund has undertaken high-impact initiatives, including Healthy Food & Community Change, launched in 2013, and Arts in Health, launched in 2018. The Fund has played a catalytic role in a range of initiatives and organizations, as well as in public-private partnerships with multiple City agencies
Ms. Tisch's philanthropy stems from her family's legacy of giving in New York City, from years of experience serving on boards, building institutions and developing partnerships, and from an engaged civic life.
She serves on the Board of Trustees at the Whitney Museum of American Art and is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and a Trustee of the Aspen Institute. She is also a co-owner and member of the Board of Directors of the New York Football Giants.
Ms. Tisch is Chair Emeritus of the Center for Arts Education (CAE) and the Children's Museum of Manhattan (CMOM). Ms. Tisch led CMOM's transformation and expansion from a neighborhood-based storefront into a citywide institution that is now recognized as a national leader in health, education and the arts. Currently, she is co-chairing a capital campaign to build a new home for CMOM on Central Park West and 96th Street.
Ms. Tisch is a recipient of many awards for philanthropy and public service. In December 2018, she received the Key to the City at Gracie Mansion. She was named one of the "50 Most Powerful Women of 2017" by Crain's New York Business, and in 2020, Avenue Magazine named her as one of its Power 50 in the category of Philanthropy. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and was honored with the United Way of NYC's 10th Anniversary Power of Women to Make a Difference Award and by the New York Women's Foundation. She received Share Our Strength's "No Kid Hungry" Hero Award and New York City's Special Merit in Public Health Award for her initiatives promoting access to healthy foods in low-income communities. She has also received the Lincoln Center Distinguished Service Award. She has an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University.
