Chair, Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation
Julie Fisher Cummings is a philanthropist leader who was born in Detroit and is dedicated to giving back to the communities where she has lived. Continued learning and service have been the hallmarks of her career. She recently returned to school and received a graduate degree in Social Policy from Columbia University in New York. Currently, she is teaching a graduate course on Child Policy at the University of Miami in Florida. Julie is dedicated to serving her local and national community. Nationally, she is a Presidential appointee and board member of the Corporation for National and Community Service. She has served on numerous boards, including Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, the United Way of Southeastern Michigan and most recently the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
As a native of Michigan, she assumed the mantle of leadership for a number of key organizations, including the Detroit Arts Commission, the Michigan Community Service Commission, and the Council of Michigan Foundations, a regional association of 400 grant-making organizations which Julie ultimately chaired. Passionate about advancing the field of philanthropy, she helped create programming and retreats for family philanthropy in her tenure on the board of the Council of Michigan Foundations. Most recently, she joined the board of the National Center for Family Philanthropy.
Julie currently serves as Chair of her family’s foundation, whose other members include her mother and four siblings. The Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation supports work that strengthens families and communities in need. In Detroit, the Foundation concentrates its efforts in the Jewish community and on early childhood development in the northwest Detroit neighborhood of Brightmoor. The Foundation is also committed to fostering AIDS awareness and to supporting the major cultural institutions on which the rebirth of this city depends.
