Meet Shelley A. Davis

Shelley A. Davis is a pragmatic, discerning CEO/Board Director and Strategist.  

She specializes in corporate governance, investment stewardship, fiduciary oversight, rebranding strategies, organizational transformation, and succession planning.

Advisory Committee Member, RUSH BMO Institute for Health Equity for Chicago’s RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER, a major hospital complex with ~10k employees, where she leverages her public policy expertise to align institutional resources with community well-being initiatives to improve health outcomes.

Board Director/Trustee serving on three Committees: Investments, Governance, and Presidential Search Committee for Appleton, Wisconsin’s LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY, a private liberal arts college and music conservatory founded in 1847.

Fiduciary Board and Executive Committee Chair, plus Investments and Succession Committees for Chicago, Illinois’ THE ALBERT PICK, JR FUND, a private, community-enhancing foundation where she led successful search committees for Executive Director, Board prospects, and pipeline building. Shelley also worked with the Treasurer to secure an outsourced Chief Investment Officer to best align with the corporate mission, plus she contributed to salary analyses/compensation studies.

As CEO for SOUTH SHORE SYNERGY, LLC, Shelley offers strategic advice and connections to organizations looking to enhance the value of key constituents and government relationships. Engagements include: 

• THE LAWYERS TRUST FUND OF ILLINOIS, an organization that for 20+ years has supported civil legal aid and is governed by Board Directors from the Chicago Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association, and the Supreme Court of Illinois. Shelley advises executives on strategies that enhance effective leadership, change management, talent retention, and organizational governance.

• YIELD GIVING OPEN CALL, where Shelley advised major philanthropists on how to best elevate organizations serving the people and places experiencing greatest need in the United States. 

•  THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: BOOTH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS | HARRIS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY, where Shelley is a long-time best practices Lecturer on impact measurement and a Senior Mentor career coach for all types of Master’s candidates.

• SOL COLLECTIVE, a private multimedia company that Shelley co-founded and serves as Business Director to unleash the voices of the women of color community. Of note, SOL COLLECTIVE recently entered into an agreement for selections of SOL COLLECTIVE’s work to be shown on Von.tv, which is streamed on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV+ app.

Previously, Shelley was the President & CEO of Chicago, Illinois’ COLEMAN FOUNDATION, which was founded in 1951 by the owners of Fannie May Candy with a mandate to improve the quality of life of its clients. In this capacity, she led strategies to train and scale entrepreneurs and healthcare providers serving cancer patients and other healthcare users. Of note, she:

• Designed/implemented the first strategic plan in partnership with the Board of Directors
• Contributed to salary analyses and compensation studies
• Built a spend-down and lifespan educational agenda in alignment with the Board of Directors 
• Transformed culture to high performance staff/contractor teams, effectively minimizing high turnover and disconnects

Before the Coleman Foundation, Shelley was the President & CEO of greater Chicago, Illinois' FOREST PRESERVE FOUNDATION, which is a public-private partnership with the Forest Preserves of Cook County. As its first President, she led the organization through its startup phase, instituting external audits, all HR and financial systems, and vendor contracts. Responsible for this Illinois county’s oldest, largest forest conservation:

• Rebranding
• Community engagement
• Board governance
• Expansion

Shelley collaborated with the Board to craft the Foundation’s first strategic plan, then launched the plan, rebranded the institution, and succeeded in reaching all established goals.