Children’s Hospital Set Path for UI Center for Advancement Leader

PHOTO: IM FILE PHOTO The Levitt Center is home to the UI Center for Advancement.

Sheila Frein Baldwin (98BBA) has driven down Melrose Avenue in Iowa City countless times.

But this time was different.

Heading downtown to eat dinner with her family in February 2017, Baldwin saw lights on and activity in the patient rooms for the first time in the new University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital. It was a moment Baldwin—then the lead fundraiser for the children's hospital—will never forget.

Sheila Baldwin, UI Center for Advancement President and CEO

“I got incredibly emotional thinking about how hard we had worked, how many conversations we had to raise the money that enabled that facility to be built,” she says. “And it actually happened. In that moment, I knew that the work we do makes a difference.”

Baldwin is now the fourth president and CEO of the UI Center for Advancement—succeeding Lynette Marshall, who held the position for the past two decades. A native of Garner, Iowa, Baldwin says that her student experiences supporting pediatric cancer patients at Iowa as a founding member of UI Dance Marathon shaped her career aspirations.

“Having that visibility into Dance Marathon at Iowa really planted the seed that I wanted to pursue a fundraising career,” she says.

During her 27 years at the UI Center for Advancement, Baldwin established a dedicated fundraising program for children’s medicine, which is now one of the largest areas that garners donor support at Iowa. She’s also been adept at producing productive partnerships—whether it’s collaborating with Mary Ferentz to create the Ladies Football Academy and raise $3 million for children’s medicine or working with Jerre (65BBA, 11LHD) and Mary Joy Stead to secure a lead gift to name Stead Family Children’s Hospital and support early career medical research scholars at the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.

PHOTO COURTESY SHEILA BALDWIN As a first-year student at the UI in 1995, Sheila Baldwin—pictured in the front row wearing red—became a founding member of UI Dance Marathon.

Leading the UI Center for Advancement, Baldwin aims to advance the university in innovative ways and deepen engagement with alumni and friends. She also hopes to build upon the organization’s strong workplace culture, drawing inspiration from one of her favorite teams—Iowa women’s basketball.

Baldwin; her husband, Brad (98BBA, 02MBA); and their two daughters are longtime Iowa women’s basketball fans and season ticket holders. They have enjoyed many memorable moments in recent years, including watching Iowa beat No. 1 South Carolina in person at the 2023 NCAA Women’s Final Four.

“Since our girls were toddlers, we’ve been supportive of the culture [coaches] Lisa Bluder and Jan Jensen have created at Iowa,” says Baldwin. “They’ve created a program that has strong, successful young women who also genuinely enjoy being around each other. They have fun doing what they do, and when I think about leading this organization, I want our staff to have fun while doing this important work. I’m incredibly passionate about the impact Iowa has on people’s lives, and I feel privileged to play a role in that.”