Social innovator and former education policymaker Rebecca Fishman Lipsey is the President and CEO of The Miami Foundation, which serves as a home base for generosity and community impact for Greater Miami. The Foundation has invested over $772 million toward strengthening Miami since inception, and works to mobilize everyone who lives, works, and plays in Miami to get involved and give back meaningfully here.
Since her appointment in 2020, Rebecca has grown the Foundation’s assets by more than 50%, which she credits to the power of collaboration and a joyful team. Rebecca has infused a commitment to equity and collective impact into every initiative at the Foundation, and she’s currently focused on building a physical home base for nonprofit strength and community solutions.
Prior to leading The Miami Foundation, Rebecca founded Radical Partners, an incubator for social-impact ventures. She began her career as a public school teacher, inspired by her grandparents’ experiences as refugees years ago. Starting in 2013, Rebecca served a 4-year term on the Florida Board of Education, overseeing educational policy impacting 3 million children from kindergarten through college, which she credits with teaching her quite how hard it is to lead system-level change, and why it is worth doing.
Rebecca’s commitment to improving Miami has earned her numerous awards and accolades including the South Florida Business Journal 2024 South Florida “Ultimate CEO” award, Miami-Dade County’s “In the Company of Women Mayor’s Pioneer Award”, Mosaic Miami’s “Silver Medallion”, Florida Trend’s “Florida 500”, “Best Non-Profit Executive” by The International Stevie Award for Women in Business, “Best Role Model” by Miami Today, and “20 Under 40″ by The Miami Herald. But if you ask Rebecca, her most important accomplishment is raising two young boys who are actually nice people.
Rebecca holds a masters degree from Bank Street College of Education, and she was valedictorian of her University of Pennsylvania undergraduate class. When she’s not building a stronger Miami, you can find her banging on the piano, walking ‘round the neighborhood with her husband of 21 years, and playing Uno with her boys.