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Maura Daly

Chief External Affairs Officer

Maura Daly, a seasoned and mission-driven nonprofit leader, joined Erikson Institute as Vice President for Institutional Advancement and Chief Marketing Officer in April 2019.

Before coming to Erikson, Maura was principal of MD Strategies, a company providing communication, fundraising and program strategy consulting services to help national and local organizations thrive. Prior to founding MD Strategies, Maura served for more than 11 years as an executive at Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization and network of food banks. At Feeding America, Maura helped transform the organization’s communications, government relations, research and fundraising – which grew from $30 million to $100 million annually. Maura’s final role at Feeding America was Chief External Affairs Officer, where she led the organization’s divisions that promoted public education and awareness about the issue of hunger; developed and evaluated effective programs that deliver more food to people in need; and raised more than $80M in revenue to support charitable feeding programs for low-income Americans.

Earlier in her career at Feeding America, Maura served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Relations where she led the cultivation of charitable relationships with the organization’s principal corporate partners, and Vice President of Government Relations and Advocacy, where she led numerous policy-related initiatives, including child and senior hunger programs, food stamp outreach, and federal and state legislative affairs. Maura provided the vision for expanding Feeding America’s community of advocates to more than 80,000 people, directed strategies to increase the number of children served by 25 percent, and led Hunger in America 2014, the most comprehensive study of domestic hunger ever conducted. Prior, Daly served as Director of Communication for Feeding America.

Maura began her career as a project manager at the American Public Transportation Association, and an account executive for Jasculca/Terman and Associates, a Chicago-based public affairs firm.

Maura is an active volunteer in her community as Vice-Chair of the Lakeview Pantry Board of Directors and as Co-Chair of the Bucktown Community Organization’s THRIVE Committee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Dayton and resides in Chicago with her husband and two children.