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Sherry Magill, Ph.D.
Honorary Degree Recipient |
Sherry Magill, Ph.D. received the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree during Randolph-Macon College’s Commencement on Saturday, May 29, 2010. She is president of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, a private grantmaking foundation, which has assets of approximately $260 million and an annual grants budget of approximately $15 million.
Magill is the former vice president and deputy to the president of Washington College in Maryland, where she taught courses in American Studies and on the American South. Currently, she is a senior moderator for the Aspen Institute and is the founding executive director of the Wye Faculty Seminar, a nationally recognized enrichment program for professors teaching in the nation’s small colleges.
Magill is a founding member and immediate past chair of the Florida Philanthropic Network, a statewide association of grantmakers working to strengthen philanthropy through research, education and public policy. The network’s members hold over $6 billion in assets and invest over $400 million annually. She is also a member of the Council on Foundations board, a national nonprofit association of approximately 2,000 grantmaking foundations and corporations. In addition, she has served as chair of the State of Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, the P.A.C.E. Center for Girls state board, and the Florida Funders Group. Other civic activities include past president of the Jacksonville (Florida) Women’s Network board, past member of the Southeastern Council of Foundations board and the Leadership Jacksonville board.
Magill earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Alabama, and her Ph.D. in American Studies from Syracuse University.
She is married to photographer Robert J. Willis.