Matt Kuhlenbeck awarded a fellowship that will engage him with peers and luminaries in health philanthropy.
ST. LOUIS, MO – Matt Kuhlenbeck, program director for the Responsive Portfolio at Missouri Foundation for Health, has been honored with a fellowship from the Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders in Health Philanthropy. A project of Grantmakers in Health (GIH), the Institute has been naming fellows since 2010 on a bi-yearly basis. A total of 17 exceptional individuals were accepted as fellows in this year’s class.
Fellows will gather at a retreat in Washington, D.C., on October 7-8, 2014. There they will have the opportunity to network with each other, as well as with veteran luminaries from across the country in the field of health philanthropy. Fellows were selected based on their innovative and critical thinking, creativity and risk taking, and contributions to their foundations and the broader field, to name only a few factors.
Each eligible organization is able to nominate a single individual, chosen by the CEO. “Matt was a natural fit for this nomination,” said Dr. Robert Hughes, president and CEO of the Foundation. “He is certainly deserving of the honor, and I’m looking forward to seeing him serve as a resource to other organizations, just as he will bring back new connections to us.”
“It’s a humbling honor to say the least,” said Kuhlenbeck. “This is an opportunity to learn how to be a better philanthropist, program manager, mentor, and professional.” Kuhlenbeck stressed that it wasn’t just the seasoned leaders that he was looking forward to meeting. “The few [other fellows] that I know are exceptional at what they do. They’re people that I call for information, and I hope that there are people that consider me a resource as well.”
The fellowship also offers benefits to the Foundation at-large. Kuhlenbeck explained that the opportunity “will help build connections with national foundations, not only for myself, but for the Foundation and its leaders.” Kuhlenbeck continued, “I expect to be exposed to numerous different thoughts and approaches to doing philanthropic work, which I can then bring back here.”
Kuhlenbeck is the second person from the Foundation to be honored by the Institute. In 2010 Program Director Amy Stringer Hessel served as a fellow during the Institute’s inaugural year.
