Distinguished Alumna
Ruth Shack ’70
President Emeritus, The Miami Foundation
Ruth Shack is President Emeritus of The Miami Foundation. She served as its president for 24 years, leading the organization from its infancy to one of community leader and change-agent.
During her esteemed tenure, Shack spearheaded a campaign to encourage philanthropy and charitable giving by developing a permanent endowment to meet Greater Miami’s emerging charitable needs.
Spurred by her leadership, the Foundation diversified its Board of Trustees, its staff and its grantmaking focus. Determined to better respond to the needs of Miami’s most intractable challenge, Shack led the charge to focus all grantmaking against the issue of cultural alienation and the need to help people successfully cross ethnic barriers. Empowerment and seed funding for emerging groups, based in the diverse multi cultural communities of Miami-Dade, were the hallmarks of the grantmaking program under her leadership.
She has served as Vice Chair of the Council on Foundations and chair of its Management Committee, on the Board of the Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth, on the Board of Funders Concerned About AIDS and was a member of the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network and chair of the Communications Network. She is past chair of the Alliance for Human Services in Miami-Dade.
Ruth Shack’s career has been rooted in the world of community service. She was elected to her first term as a Metro-Dade County Commissioner in 1976, re-elected to a four year term in 1978 and to a third term in 1982.
Today in her honor, The Miami Foundation has established the Ruth and Richard Shack Society recognizing the organization’s most generous philanthropists. In addition, each year The Miami Foundation and Leave a Legacy present the Ruth Shack Leadership Award to one of Miami’s most promising young leaders.