# Michael Reese Health Trust Michael Reese Health Trust is an Endowment / Foundation based in Chicago, United States. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Endowment / Foundation - **Headquarters:** Chicago, United States - **Region:** North America - **Address:** Chicago, Illinois, United States - **Founded:** 1991 - **Assets under management:** $150M – $160M (Altss estimate) - **Website:** wearemichaelreese.org - **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/michael-reese-health-trust ## Regulatory record - **Reports private funds:** No ## About The Trust traces back to the 1991 sale of the original Michael Reese Hospital to Humana Inc., a transaction that converted a 110-year-old Jewish philanthropic medical institution into a discrete pool of charitable capital. The Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago was named the sole corporate member, but the Trust maintains independent governance through its own board and Ameya Pawar's executive leadership. Today, the foundation operates as a public charity rather than a private foundation, a structural choice that imposes stricter public-support tests but unlocks broader fundraising flexibility. The Trust's investment posture is deliberately hybrid. The Glenn Apartments, a supportive housing project in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, sits on the Trust's balance sheet as a direct real asset — a physical manifestation of its homelessness-prevention mandate. Ameya Pawar joined the Trust as CEO in 2019 after serving two terms as a Chicago alderman, bringing a policy operator's lens to the endowment. His tenure has sharpened the Trust's focus on upstream health determinants: the Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness coalition, which the Trust helps steer, coordinates philanthropic dollars with city housing strategy. The Michael Reese Research and Education Foundation operates as a separate legacy entity, preserving the hospital's historical archives and supporting health research grants distinct from the main endowment's advocacy work. The Trust also maintains ties to Forefront, Illinois's regional grantmaker association, and Grantmakers In Health, reflecting a peer-engaged, collaborative funding model rare among single-institution foundations of its size. Structurally, the Trust's origin story sets it apart from most health-conversion foundations. Many such foundations were created in the 1980s and 1990s when nonprofit hospitals were sold to for-profit chains, yet few have evolved into public charities — most remain private foundations with fixed 5% payout requirements and limited lobbying capacity. The public-charity structure gives Pawar's team more latitude to fund advocacy campaigns and incubate programs directly, blurring the line between endowment and operating nonprofit. The resulting model is less a passive asset pool and more a managed pool of catalytic capital, with investment returns and grant distributions both subordinated to a single, geography-bound mission: health for every Chicagoan. ## Sectors - Healthcare Services - Real Estate - Private Credit ## People - Ameya Pawar — President and CEO - Kerry Goese — Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer - Lee Miller — Board Member - Dr. David Rubovits — Board Member ## Questions ### How did the Michael Reese Health Trust originate? The Trust was created in 1991 when the historic Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, a Jewish-founded institution on Chicago's South Side, was sold to Humana Inc. The sale proceeds endowed a new charitable entity, with the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago designated as the sole corporate member. The Trust later converted to a public charity, giving it broader programmatic flexibility than a standard private foundation. ### Who runs investment decisions and grantmaking at the Trust? Kerry Goese serves as CFO and CIO, overseeing the endowment portfolio and mission-related investments. Grantmaking and advocacy strategy are led by President and CEO Ameya Pawar, a former Chicago alderman who joined the Trust in 2019. The board includes Lee Miller, former global chair of DLA Piper, and Dr. David Rubovits, former COO of the Jewish United Fund. ### What does the Trust actually invest in? The Trust deploys capital across venture capital, distressed debt, buyouts, real estate, secondaries, and fund-of-funds commitments, with a documented interest in impact strategies. A direct real estate holding, The Glenn Apartments in Chicago's Uptown, provides supportive housing — an investment that aligns directly with the Trust's homelessness-prevention mission. Specific fund commitments are not publicly disclosed. ### How is this foundation different from a standard health legacy foundation? Most hospital-conversion foundations are private foundations with rigid 5% payout mandates and limited advocacy capacity. Michael Reese operates as a public charity, which allows it to engage more actively in policy advocacy, program incubation, and coalition-building. The Trust's focus on upstream determinants — homelessness, domestic violence, workforce gaps — also departs from the typical disease-specific or hospital-subsidy model common among similar endowments. ### What is the Trust's relationship with the Jewish United Fund? The Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago (JUF) is the Trust's historical sole corporate member and remains a strategic partner, particularly through the Fund for Innovation in Health. Despite the structural link, the Trust operates with its own independent board and professional staff, and its grantmaking priorities serve the broader Chicago population rather than exclusively Jewish causes. ## Related profiles - [Employees Securities Fund of the Electrical Product Industries](https://altss.com/profile/employees-securities-fund-of-the-electrical-product-industries) - [The Newspaper Guild International Pension Plan](https://altss.com/profile/the-newspaper-guild-international-pension-plan) --- Last updated: 2026-08-11T02:43:31.692Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/michael-reese-health-trust Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology