Jeff SnellJeff Snell, Grad ’96, is the special advisor to the president at Marquette University, where he works with the university leadership to determine strategies and academic priorities in support of the Office of the Provost.

Jeff has helped develop key initiatives and partnerships, including technology transfer, leadership searches, the national Youth of the Year scholarship program with Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and the university's ongoing Social Innovation Initiative, placing Marquette among the first ten universities nationally to be designated a Changemaker Campus by Ashoka; Innovators for the Public, the world's largest network of social entrepreneurs. The Social Innovation Initiative’s developments to date include founding the Midwest Consortium for Social Innovation, a partnership with the New York Times (FixesU) funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Brady Corporation Midwest Social Innovation Design Contest (the first regional platform), the executive education Social Innovation Leadership Experience, graduate and undergraduate course design and teaching, and the first university-backed feasibility study to explore a Cristo Rey Network school in Milwaukee.

Prior to joining Marquette, Jeff served from 2004 to 2007 as chief operating officer for the Argosy Foundation, a private foundation with assets projected at $1 billion. His duties included designing and implementing the full scope of all operations in support of the Foundation’s board of trustees.

Prior to joining Argosy, Jeff served for eight years at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, including three years as president and CEO. His tenure at the Clubs coincided with the largest member and resource development expansion in the Clubs’ 118-year history, making Milwaukee arguably the largest Club out of more than 3,500 nationally. Jeff’s key professional accomplishments include the development of a nationally replicated outcomes study, significant collaborations with public and private entities to enhance the Club’s service to more than 25,000 members, and completing the largest endowment bequest campaign for a social service agency in the history of Wisconsin. His combined fundraising totaled nearly $100 million during his tenure at the Clubs.

Jeff received his doctor of philosophy in education from Marquette in 1996. He also holds a master’s in social ethics from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, graduating magna cum laude and receiving the Seminary’s division award in Apologetics and Thought.

In 2007 he received the School of Education’s Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2006 Appleton East High School awarded him the Alumni Patriot Award for “outstanding civic achievement [and] professional accomplishment.” In 2001 The Business Journal serving Greater Milwaukee recognized him through their 40 Under Forty awards program as an “emerging difference-maker in the community.”

Jeff resides in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, with his wife of more than 20 years, Jennifer, and their two children.

UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP COUNCIL


ABOUT MARQUETTE

Quick Facts About Marquette

Identity: Catholic, Jesuit, private
Established: 1881
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Undergraduate: 8,113
Postgraduate: 3,693
Campus: Urban, approximately 90 acres
Athletics: 16 NCAA Division I teams (Big East)
Colors: Blue and gold