Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UPAF in Milwaukee names Annemarie Scobey-Polacheck as its new president and CEO

Annemarie Scobey-Polacheck will be the United Performing Arts Fund's next president and CEO, the Milwaukee-area arts funding organization announced Tuesday.

Scobey-Polacheck has been director of corporate philanthropy for Johnson Controls since 2018, with previous roles at Johnson Controls that involved her managing UPAF and United Way campaigns. For more than 20 years, she also was a parenting columnist for the Catholic Herald newspaper and is the author of "Discovering Motherhood: An Extraordinary Journey through Everyday Life."

She is a graduate of Marquette University and Dominican High School.

"I look forward to working collaboratively across the business, philanthropic and creative sectors to ensure continued support for the arts,” she said in a statement released by UPAF.

Scobey-Polacheck will begin at UPAF on Sept. 3. She succeeds Patrick Rath, who stepped down from the top UPAF post in March.

She takes over at a challenging time for UPAF, which supports 55 performing arts organizations through its annual campaign. A Wisconsin Policy Forum report released in May highlighted competitive tension between larger and smaller performing arts organizations for philanthropic dollars, "exacerbated by stagnant workplace giving through UPAF over the past decade."