Our Team
Alyse Knust
Position: Chief Development Officer
Alyse Knust joins the Heart of
Illinois Community Foundation as Chief Development Officer with more than
sixteen years of experience in philanthropy, major gifts, and donor engagement.
Most recently, Alyse served as Vice
President of Development and Strategic Engagement at Millikin University, where
she spent eleven years building meaningful relationships with donors, alumni,
and friends of the university. Her career spans institutions across the
country, from the University of Texas at Austin to arts organizations including
Texas Performing Arts, Santa Fe Opera, and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival
giving her a broad perspective on how philanthropy fuels mission-driven work
across sectors.
Alyse continues as an adjunct
instructor in Arts Management at Millikin University and holds a bachelor's
degree in Theatre Management from the University of Evansville and an MBA from
Concordia University Texas.
A proud Argenta-Oreana resident and parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes, Alyse is a boy mom who loves gardening, traveling, cooking with her husband, and finding any excuse to be in a theatre.
