Mary Pounder (she/her) joined AFC’s board in 2018. She serves as the Executive Director of the Comer Family Foundation. She has a passion for advancing systemic change for equitable health care through the framework of harm reduction, preventing overdose and the transmission of HIV and HCV through drug use. As the longest standing private funder of harm reduction, she works closely with low barrier rural and urban syringe access programs and serves as a resource for best practices nationally.
Mary serves as AFC’s Policy and Advocacy Chair and serves on Forefront of Illinois’ Board of Directors and Advancing Racial Equity Committee. In 2020 she collaborated with philanthropic leaders to create the Chicago Racial Justice Pooled Fund raising $7 Million in three years to Chicago community organizers building and sustaining movements for justice that center Black lives and address anti-Blackness.
Previously she led UnitedHealthcare’s Central Region Corporate Social Responsibility, Medicaid implementation, and mergers/acquisitions. Mary received her master’s in public health at Northern Illinois University.
