Caroline Girgis, Community Outreach Manager

Caroline Girgis joined the Stanford Lively Arts staff in October 2008. In her the position as Community Outreach Manager, Caroline oversees and manages K–12 education and community programs, combining her passion for education, community outreach, and the arts. Prior to relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area, she worked for nearly twenty years in Chicago’s arts, education, and philanthropic communities. Most recently, she served as Director of Academic Affairs at Sherwood Conservatory of Music, a community music school serving students of all ages and abilities, where she directed and oversaw all aspects of the instructional program and performance activity at the school, and developed new instructional partnerships with public schools and community centers in Chicago.

Caroline’s experience also includes positions as a program officer with the Field Foundation of Illinois, where she focused on the foundation’s education and culture portfolios, and as consultant with the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at the Prince Charitable Trusts, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and the Grand Victoria Foundation. Under her leadership the Field Foundation widened the scope of its culture portfolio by making grants to a broader base of organizations providing arts education and increased access to the arts. She has also held positions with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and as an assistant stage director with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. While in Chicago, Caroline served on the boards of the Grant Park Music Festival, the nation’s largest free outdoor classical music festival; the South Chicago Art Center, an after school visual art program for underserved youth on the city’s south side; and on the organizing committee to establish the first public arts high school in Chicago, which opened in the fall of 2009.

Caroline received her B.A. in music and Italian from the University of Southern California, and her M.A. in music history from the University of Chicago. A native of Cairo, Egypt, she came to the Bay Area with her family as a child and grew up in San Mateo. She is delighted to be back in California, and has happy memories of attending Stanford Lively Arts performances as a teen. In her free time, she loves to read memoirs and biographies, go hiking, and attend the opera.

Email: cgirgis@stanford.edu
Phone: 650-736-9015

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