Common Ground CEO Selected for Fellowship Grant

Common Ground CEO Tony Rothschild is one of the first three recipients awarded a grant by the McGregor Fund for the Eugene A. Miller Fellows Program recently.  The grants were awarded to support sabbaticals for the three awardees.  The other two recipients are Cheryl P. Johnson, CEO of Coalition on Temporary Shelter (COTS) and John Van Camp, President and CEO of Southwest Solutions.

Rothschild was selected by the McGregor Fund for his distinguished record of accomplishment, his demonstrated abilty to lead and motivate staff and his well-known expertise among peers in the human services field at large.

As part of his grant application, Rothschild designed a sabbatical that while removing him temporarily from day-to-day operations at Common Ground, allows him to pursue activities that will contribute to his skills, knowledge and commitment to the nonprofit arena.  The sabbatical entails both study and teaching in the field of nonprofit board governance, as well as learning more about international best practices in mental health and helping to build the capacity of the Washington, D.C. based mental health advocacy group, the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare.  He also plans to take a four week immersion course in the Spanish language at a school in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.  He will also serve as “CEO in Residence” at the University of Michigan’s School of Social Work.

“It is my personal goal to help Common Ground successfully become a model of high-impact governance–not only in metro Detroit, but on a national scale,” explained Rothschild.  “I am eager to make the time to study and put into practice some of the innovative concepts being developed on board governance, which I believe will result in the type of leadership required to take on the challenges we are faced with today.”

The Eugene A. Miller Fellows Program recognizes and encourages excellence in the leadership of an agency by providing support for a sabbatical for the agency’s president, executive director or founder.  The program awards up to three grants annually of up to $50,000 each, to selected human services agencies, chosen from among recent McGregor Fund grantees with chief executives of long standing.  In addition to providing financial support for sabbatical expenses, grants made under the Miller Fellows Program may also be used to support direct costs incurred by the agencies while their executives are on leave.