Kirsten Villers

Kirsten Villers (T’01) spent her early career working in investment and commercial banking at J. P. Morgan and its legacy organizations. During her time at JPM, she worked for the CFO of Chase Commercial Banking, assisting in all aspects of supporting a $6 billion dollar business. Subsequently, Ms. Villers worked at Chase Capital, providing subordinated debt and equity capital to Chase customers. Recently, Ms. Villers served as the Board Chair to Great Lakes Academy (GLA), a public charter school in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. During her time on the Board, GLA expanded from K-2 to K-8 and currently serves almost 600 students. During this time, Ms. Villers oversaw the $3 million purchase and expansion of GLA’s campus to deliver a new, state-of-the-art facility to its students and families. She also led the transition process of the school’s management from its founder to the current Executive Director. GLA continues to be a top-performing elementary school in the city. Ms. Villers earned a B.A. in Political Science from Duke, followed by her M.B.A. from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, with concentrations in Finance and Not-for-Profit Administration. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Ned, their three children and two dogs.