Beth Gallagher is the Director of Community Involvement for AON Corporation, headquartered in Chicago. According to her bio, she is responsible for “managing the day-to-day operations of the AON Foundation giving programs, which include grants, sponsorships, business unit charitable contributions, disaster relief and employee matching gifts. In addition, Beth oversees employee volunteer programming at the firm.”
But–as Beth put it in a phone conversation–she “never would have guessed that a job like this existed,” when she first arrived in MAPH in 2001. At that point, she had one year of professional experience under her belt, and thought that she was on a path toward writing education. Though she took classes in pedagogy, Beth now says that it was her job as a docent at the Smart Museum and other coursework at the University that “broadened my thoughts about education.”
She began thinking about working in fundraising. But by the time the 2002 class graduated, the job market had collapsed. “It wasn’t as bad as this,” she said, talking about the context of her first attempts to find employment in comparison with the current economic conditions. After graduation she worked as an executive assistant at Youth Outreach Services before ultimately landing a gig there in development. She has been with AON Corporation since 2006.
Beth said she looks forward to speaking with MAPH students diverse opportunities in a corporate setting. She will be speaking at tonight’s Career Core event.
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