The Newberry recently welcomed Mary Ellen Borchers as Vice President for Finance and Administration. Borchers will play a key role in stewarding the organization’s resources while enhancing internal systems and operations. She oversees Business Services, Facilities, Human Resources, and Information Technology and works closely with the President and Board of Trustees to guide financial strategy, capital planning, and institutional operations.
Borchers joined the Newberry from the Office of the Chancellor at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she served as Director of Strategic Initiatives. In that capacity, she led cross-functional projects focused on student success, operational innovation, and resource allocation, helping advance UIC’s institutional priorities. Borchers brings more than seventeen years of experience in higher education and nonprofit finance, planning, facilities management, and operations. Prior to joining UIC, she worked as a higher education consulting manager with Huron Consulting Group and served as Associate Vice President of Finance at Illinois Institute of Technology, where she led the implementation of a financial model that facilitated strategic planning and strengthened the university's fiscal health.
Borchers earned her BS in architecture from Ohio State University and her MBA from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.