Marion Howard

About Marion Howard

Marion Howard graduated from Dartmouth College and has lived in New York City since then. Before suspending her professional career to raise her family, she worked for two leading retail organizations in New York City as a merchant and business systems specialist. At Macy's, Marion began in a merchant role, then transitioned into the systems side of the business as digital advances began transforming retail. At the regional disruptor Century 21 Department Stores, Marion worked with the founder and senior management to harness all forms of data and technology to improve business, and sat on the executive committee.

While raising her family, Marion has been deeply involved with a number of community and not for profit organizations committed to social and educational advancement. The common threads to these endeavors have been community building, constituent engagement and fundraising. At New York's Village Community School, she worked on the fundraising auction, annual fund and Capital Campaign. While serving on that organization's Community Service committee 15 years ago, Marion initiated a Green Bag program to convert families to reusable bags as an early adopter. She chaired the school’s $1.2mm annual fund for several years and joined the VCS Board of Trustees during 2018. Marion served as Chair of the West 11th Street Block Association for 15 years, leading a multi-faceted effort to resuscitate neighborhood spirit and build a sense of community on a diverse block within Greenwich Village. Marion joined the Chewonki Foundation board (Wiscasset, Maine) in 2022.

When not supporting various nonprofits, Marion enjoys boating, pickleball, antiquing, theater, art and design, and treasures time spent at her Boothbay home. She and her husband are engaged with a variety of Maine organizations – including Maine Community Foundation, MITA, Oceanswide, and Colby College. Her son Jack is a recent graduate of Wesleyan University, and daughter Millie is a rising senior at Smith College. Husband Mark is a Colby ’85 and works in Research for a European bank when not volunteering on the Boards of a variety of education / research related institutions.