Cecelia Gore

Nonprofit executive Cecelia Gore was born on December 5, 1958, in Milwaukee Wisconsin, to Dorothy and William Ira Gore. She received her B.A. degree in business and professional communications in 1992 and her M.B.A. degree in 2008, both from Alverno College, in Milwaukee, and her certificate in strategic perspectives in nonprofit management in 2013 from Harvard Business School. Gore also attended the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Gore worked at First Wisconsin Bank and the U.S. Post Office before joining the Wisconsin Gas Company (later We Energies) in Milwaukee in 1983, where her initial roles included maps and records clerk, employee benefits specialist, and performance manager. After receiving her B.A. degree, in 1992, Gore returned to Wisconsin Gas, working in community affairs. Gore also took part in Wisconsin Gas’s loaned executive program and served at United Way. In 2000, Gore accepted the position of program director of Milwaukee’s Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation. In 2009, she became executive director of the Brewers Community Foundation, the charitable arm of the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club (MLB).

Gore has served on the boards of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, the Greater Milwaukee Committee, Alverno College, City Year Milwaukee, Sojourner Family Peace Center, Froedetert Hospital, Town Bank, a Wintrust Company, the YWCA of Greater Milwaukee, C. G. Schmidt, Milwaukee Film, Milwaukee Women, Inc., Sculpture MKE, Hank Aaron Chasing the Dream Foundation, Milwaukee Public Library, Menomonee Valley Partners, Marcus Center, and North Milwaukee State Bank. She co-chaired the 2019 United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha Community Campaign and has led capital/community campaigns at several other organizations, including United Way, the YWCA, United Performing Arts Fund, Alverno College, and Sojourner Family Peace Center.

Gore received the Driven to Achieve Award from the Donald Driver Foundation in 2020 and 2021, the YWCA’s Outstanding Woman of Achievement Award, and the Girl Scouts Community Leadership Award, and was named in Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Women of Influence Hall of Fame. Gore also received an honorary doctorate from Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Gore and her husband, Randy Bryant, live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Cecelia Gore was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on January 25, 2022.