Mimi O'Brien

Mimi O'Brien became the executive director of The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation in December 2012. She joined the foundation after a 21-year career in corporate and foundation development at Duke University. At the Biddle Foundation, she has worked with the board to evolve the foundation’s grantmaking approach from many small project-based grants to fewer and larger multiyear grants, with a goal of helping nonprofits build organizational capacity and sustainability. She has engaged the foundation in the Triangle Capacity Building Network, a funder collaboration that has pooled resources to support nonprofits through grants and other resources. She represents the
foundation on the Durham Cultural Roadmap Steering Committee and on the Advisory Committee of the North Carolina Network of Grantmakers.

Mimi has an M.A. from Duke University and a B.A. from Berea College (KY). She volunteers with Durham organizations through the Rotary Club of Durham, serves as her neighborhood’s delegate to the Durham InterNeighborhood Council, and is a precinct judge and poll worker for the Durham Board of Elections. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Duke University Federal Credit Union and the Rotary Club of Durham. Originally from Dayton, OH, she has lived in Durham since 1991.