Michael Marsicano is President and CEO of Foundation For The Carolinas, a community foundation serving the metropolitan Charlotte region. Managing assets owned and represented of $1.7 billion, the Foundation holds over 2400 charitable funds. In the 16 years Dr. Marsicano has been at the helm of FFTC, contributions to the Foundation have totaled more than $2.5 billion and grant awards distributed more than $1.6 billion. Grants from the Foundation cover a wide range of subject areas.
Dr. Marsicano joined the Foundation in 1999 after serving as President and CEO of the Arts and Science Council in Charlotte for 10 years. During his tenure, the united arts fund moved to the nation’s highest in per capita annual giving with one of the largest permanent endowments in the field.
A recipient of numerous national and local awards, Dr. Marsicano has received the Selina Roberts Ottum Award, the Innovator of the Year Award, Excellence in Management Award, UNC-C Distinguished Service Award, Winthrop University Medal of Honor in the Arts, Father of the Year Award, Whitney M. Young, Jr., Award, and the Arch of Triumph Award from Johnson C. Smith University.
Dr. Marsicano holds three degrees from Duke: a B. S. in Psychology (1977), Masters of Education (1978) and a Ph.D. (1982).
Dr. Marsicano has been active in several national and local organizations. He currently serves on the Governing Boards of Duke University, Duke University Health System, Charlotte Center City Partners, and is Chair of the Queens University Board of Trustees. He has previously chaired the Boards of the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He has served on the Boards of Americans for the Arts, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Discovery Place Science Exploratorium, Kenan Institute for the Arts, University of North Carolina at Charlotte Foundation, Winthrop University Foundation, the Vann Center for Ethics at Davidson College, The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke as well as the Board of Community Foundations of America. He has chaired the distribution of federal dollars to local arts organizations in leadership roles with The National Endowment for the Arts.
He and his wife, the Reverend Leslie M. Marsicano T’78, D’81, have three sons. His son Christopher holds degrees from Davidson College and Duke University and is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Vanderbilt University. His son Jamie is an undergraduate at Brown University and son David an undergraduate at Rhodes College.
Elected to the Duke University Board of Trustees in 2007, Dr. Marsicano is a member of the Executive Committee, chairs the Facility and Environment Committee and is a member of the Subcommittee on Trusteeship. He also serves on the board of the Duke University Health System, and was the National Chair of the Duke Annual Fund in 2010-12.