The University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences Development (MBSD) department has announced a change in leadership, as long-time Vice President and Associate Dean Laila Rashid will retire in August 2025. Kristin Stewart will serve as Interim VP and Associate Dean while UChicago conducts a national search for Rashid’s permanent successor.
Rashid has been Vice President and Associate Dean for MBSD since 2011, where she has worked closely with Biological Sciences Division (BSD) and UChicago Medicine (UCM) academic, administrative, and board leadership to set the overall strategy, direction, and organization for our philanthropic fundraising and alumni relations efforts. She built a fundraising team of more than 80 staff members who increased productivity year after year and collectively raised $1.2 billion as part of the UChicago Inquiry and Impact Campaign that closed in 2019. She also led the recent efforts to raise more than $133 million for our new AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion.
During her time leading MBSD, Rashid had extraordinary success closing transformative gifts to fund scientific research, including the $100M gift to establish the Duchossois Family Institute and a $25M gift to the BSD and Crown School of Social Work, Policy and Practice to establish the Susan and Richard Kiphart Center for Global Health. From July 2022 to March 2023, she also served as Interim Vice President for Alumni Relations and Development (ARD), working closely with UChicago President Paul Alivisatos, University academic leadership, and the board of trustees to advance UChicago’s mission. In 2016, she led an effort to unify fundraising for the sciences across the University, working with teams from the Physical Sciences Division, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and the Marine Biological Laboratory.
Stewart is currently Assistant Vice President for Principal Gifts & Strategic Initiatives in MBSD, where she works with colleagues to maximize principal and transformational gift fundraising opportunities encompassing many priority areas, including cancer, neurosciences, immuno-engineering, microbiome science, community health, faculty and scholarship support. She partnered with the University’s Alumni Relations and Development (ARD) office to develop cross-unit, multidisciplinary funding opportunities for shared projects and visions.
Since 2022, Stewart has helped raise more than $148 million to support research, education, and patient care, including the $75 million naming gift for the new AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion. Before coming to UChicago, she was Executive Director, Principal and Major Gifts (Cancer & Neurosciences) at Rush University Medical Center. Prior to her eight-year tenure at Rush, she spent nine years at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, where she had a variety of responsibilities as Director of Development, including campaign planning and major gift fundraising, board governance and volunteer management, and program development.
