Laurene Sperling T'78

Laurene Sperling is president of the Sperling Family Charitable Foundation where she plays an active role investing in the social service sector, with a particular emphasis on education and youth development.  Her prior professional experience was in corporate finance and investment banking at Paine Webber, Inc. and Cowen and Co., and accounting for Ernst and Young.  Ms. Sperling graduated from Duke in 1978 with a degree in accounting, and went on to the Harvard Business School to receive her MBA in 1982. 

She is chair of the Bell Foundation, a national leader in after-school and summer programs for children at risk. In addition, she serves on the Board of Dean's Advisors for Harvard Business School, the Board of New Profit, Inc., the Deans Advisory Board for Harvard's Graduate School of Education, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute Women's Cancers Visiting Committee, the Brigham and Women's Hospital Women's Health Leadership Council, CJP Supplemental Education Task Force, and the Board of Temple Shir Tikva.  A member of the Duke University Library Advisory Board from 1997 until 2010, she served as Chair from 2006 through 2010. 

Ms. Sperling and husband Scott Sperling live in Wayland, Massachusetts.  They have four children.

Elected to the Board of Trustees in 2010, Ms. Sperling serves as a member of the Institutional Advancement and the Medical Center Academic Affairs Committees. 

July 2011