Marquette VP named to Foley Foundation board of directors

Rana Altenburg (Courtesy photo)

WASHINGTON - The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation has announced that Rana Altenburg, associate vice president of public affairs at Marquette University, has joined its board of directors.

The Foley Foundation was created in 2014 to honor the legacy of James Foley, a graduate of Marquette and a freelance journalist who was captured and beheaded by ISIS in Syria in 2014. The foundation is dedicated to advocating for the freedom of all Americans kidnapped and wrongfully detained abroad, improving U.S. hostage policy, and offering preventive journalist safety curricula.

"As a Marquette University alumna, it is a privilege to serve the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation to help honor one of the university's standout graduates, James Foley," Altenburg said. "James stood for everything that is special about Marquette, embodying the Catholic, Jesuit values at the heart of the university's mission. His spirit of social justice is ever-present on campus through the work of the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking and serves as an inspiration to student journalists in our Diederich College of Communication".

Diane Foley, James' mother and founder and president of the foundation, said, "I am so very honored and grateful to welcome Rana Altenburg to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation. She brings her expertise as an experienced lobbyist with her selfless ethic of making a difference for others."

Altenburg oversees the university's community relations and governmental initiatives at the federal, state, county, city and tribal levels. She is also president of Near West Wide Partners, a member of the boards of directors of Business Improvement District No. 10, Wisconsin Avenue Milwaukee Development Corp., Seton Catholic Schools, Wisconsin Public Forum, The Wisconsin Group, and The Science Coalition.

She also spent five years as a Washington-based public affairs consultant representing clients in areas of health care, higher education, and Native American policy.

Altenburg is a graduate of Marquette and earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.