“A ‘doer’s’ satisfaction comes from having done a task well. Whether they act on their own vision or that of someone else, 'doers' have always been central to the country’s quality of life.”
-Margaret E. Mahoney
Known as the “Grande Dame” of philanthropy, Margaret Ellerbe Mahoney was a self-identified ‘doer.’ A native of Nashville, TN, and graduate of Vanderbilt University, Ms. Mahoney devoted her career to working with philanthropies focused on public health, education, arts and the humanities and helped define the mission of the CDC Foundation to unleash the power of collaboration to save and improve lives.
Ms. Mahoney’s career as a philanthropist began in 1953 as an executive at the Carnegie Corporation. There, she helped establish the Clinical Scholars Program, designed to expand access to health services, improve quality of care and inform national health care policy. When Ms. Mahoney became vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in 1972, she brought the Clinical Scholars Program with her, where it ultimately continued to operate for 45 years. During this time, the program trained 1,200 scholars who went on to hold leadership positions in all levels of government, serve as university deans and shape our country’s clinical research programs.
In her time with RWJF, Ms. Mahoney is credited with helping the organization become the largest public health foundation in the United States. She left RWJF to become president of the Commonwealth Fund in New York City in 1980, a foundation dedicated to strengthening and improving the U.S. healthcare system, becoming the first woman to head a major U.S. philanthropic foundation.
Upon her retirement from the Commonwealth Fund in 1995, Ms. Mahoney served as president of MEM Associates, Inc., a New York-based nonprofit consulting firm, where she created Healthy Steps for Young Children, a national initiative encouraging pediatricians to focus on developmental milestones in the first three years of a child's life. Still widely used today, this program has reached more than 470,000 children in 25 states.
Ms. Mahoney with Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, March 1988.
Ms. Mahoney with UNESCO's third Director-General Luther Evans (L) and New York Times Education Editor Ben Fine (R), September, 1953.
With her expertise in creating partnerships and opportunities to support public health, Ms. Mahoney was drawn to the idea of the CDC Foundation, which was launched in 1994. As a founding member of CDC Foundation's board of directors, Ms. Mahoney’s leadership was instrumental from the outset. Mahoney served on the board of directors until 2004, including as board chair from 1996-1998.
Martha Katz, who served as visiting senior program director during CDC Foundation’s earliest days, described Ms. Mahoney as a “key player in clearly articulating the purpose of this new, most unusual organization. Everyone in philanthropy, health care and even the media knew her well, and they all trusted her judgement.”
Ms. Mahoney’s interest in serving others was without limits. In addition to her work with the CDC Foundation, she served on numerous other nonprofit boards, including those of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Columbia University, the Alliance for Aging Research, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the Dole Foundation, the New York Academy of Medicine and the Dartmouth Medical School/Koop Institute Board of Overseers. She was a member of the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine, which she helped create in the 1970s, and she received honorary degrees from many colleges and universities, including Smith College, Williams College, Brandeis University and the Medical College of Pennsylvania.
The 2002 CDC Foundation Board of Directors. Photo courtesy of Martha Katz.
(L-R) Carol Koplan, MD, wife of former CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan; Martha Katz; Ms. Mahoney and Marnie Vliet. Photo courtesy of Martha Katz.
Marni Vliet, who served with Ms. Mahoney on the board of the CDC Foundation, had a close friendship with her. With no family after the passing of her mother, an interior designer and architectural scholar who raised her alone, Ms. Mahoney was fascinated by family dynamics. When she attended dinners and reunions with Vliet’s family, she enjoyed the intricacies of conversation and interaction—a skill Vliet says was critical to Ms. Mahoney’s success as a philanthropist.
Though Ms. Mahoney was described by those who knew her as a woman of class and elegance, Vliet’s daughter Whitney brought out a more youthful side of her. When Ms. Mahoney took Whit wedding dress shopping, they spent the afternoon dancing around the dressing room together, a visual that few who worked with Mahoney could fathom.
“She wanted joy in the world. She spread joy,” said Vliet.
Ms. Mahoney on vacation in Maine with Harvey and Jean Picker, founders of the Picker Institute, August 1986
Ms. Mahoney with Gara Lamarche, former president and CEO of The Atlantic Philanthropies and vice president and director of U.S. programs for The Open Society Institute, 1997
She wanted joy in the world. She spread joy.
Though Ms. Mahoney saw her legacy as the Clinical Scholars Program and Healthy Steps for Young Children, her vision and experience also paved the way for what the CDC Foundation could be. “After leaving a dinner with her, one couldn’t help but feel more informed and more connected to the spirit of philanthropy. She knew all of the world—the world of philanthropy, the world of public health and the world of healthcare,” said Vliet. “She embodied our mission because of her profound ability to make these connections.”
In 1998, In honor of Ms. Mahoney’s service to the board and her vital support of the CDC Foundation, the CDC Foundation board of directors created the Margaret Ellerbe Mahoney Society to recognize supporters of the CDC Foundation and its mission to create bridges like she did. A true visionary and trailblazing 'doer,’ Margaret Mahoney improved countless lives and helped shape the world of philanthropy into what we know today.
Photos courtesy of Smith College | Scrapbook photographs, Margaret Mahoney and others, 1951-1997. Margaret E. Mahoney papers, Sophia Smith Collection, SSC-MS-00230, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts.
