Catherine B. Squires

Catherine B. Squires, CFRE, is Vice President for University Advancement, as well as President and CEO of the NIU Foundation, a position she has held since 2015. She joined the iFiber Board of Directors in 2022.  The Division of University Advancement is responsible for friend-raising and fund-raising at Northern Illinois University. Programs within the division are responsible for building strong relationships with NIU alumni and managing philanthropy to benefit the university. The Office of the Vice President for University Advancement provides administrative direction for the Offices of Alumni Relations and Development, as well as being the liaison from the university to its two major volunteer boards: the NIU Alumni Association and the NIU Foundation. Squires earned her bachelor’s degree in Music from NIU in 1980.

Squires is responsible for the overall vision, leadership, strategy, and management of all fundraising and alumni relations activities on behalf of NIU. Working directly with President Baker and academic leadership, she will play a key role in institutional planning that integrates development and alumni relation strategies into the NIU’s overall academic and fiscal plans, soliciting the private financial support necessary to advance NIU’s strategic priorities.

Squires returned to NIU after serving nearly seven years as vice president of the Tufts Medical Center Trust, where she was the chief development executive for Tufts Medical Center and Floating Hospital for Children, the principal teaching hospitals of Tufts University School of Medicine. At Tufts, she led the growth of the annual fundraising program from $9 to $14 million as a member of the senior leadership team.  She also served as a volunteer member of the organization’s ethics committee, a lifelong professional interest.

From 2005-2008, Squires served as the chief advancement officer of the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago, where she led staff, volunteers and interns responsible for $11.5 million in annual giving and served as spokesperson in leading the marketing and public affairs functions of the organization.

Squires spent six years as vice president of development for Oak Brook-based Advocate Charitable Foundation. Prior to that, she served as director of development at the Youth Campus of Park Ridge for five years following 15 years of service with the Illinois Chamber Symphony in St. Charles, where she was a founding member of the board of directors, personnel and operations manager and later, executive director. Squires has served in volunteer board positions with the Association of Fundraising Professionals International (AFP) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA).