About Kary

As Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Kary handles the marketing P&L for the Medical Center and Lurie Children’s Foundation. This includes all media relations and external communications; all owned, earned, and paid media; the corporate website, CRM, direct marketing efforts, marketing. Her team drives awareness, preference, volume, donations, reputation and reach for this top-ranked national children’ hospital.

Lurie Children’s represents a capstone on her 25-plus year career in advertising. As President and CEO of Y&R Chicago, Ms. McIlwain was responsible for the P&L, strategy, and operations of a full-service digital and traditional agency. Y&R is a legendary agency that serves both local and global clients across a range of industries, including retail, travel, hospitality, and consumer packaged goods. Under Ms. McIlwain’ s leadership, Y&R reinvented its digital offering, created a digital content studio, revamped its creative product, and was named top 10 “Creative Heavyweights” by Creativity magazine.

She is a member of two invitation only organizations: The Chicago Network, an organization for top business leaders in Chicago and where she serves on the board and Northwestern University’s Council of 100- a cohort of top graduates selected to mentor female students and alumnae. She is also a member of Economics Club of Chicago, The Executive’s Club of Chicago, Vassar College Parent Leadership Board and serves on boards of The Sprague Foundation, The Heartland Alliance, The Red Cross of Greater Chicago, The Poetry Foundation community, and civic organizations.

Ms. McIlwain graduated from Bradley University with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism, followed by a Masters’ degree from Northwestern University.