Meet Emily Wills: The Morgridge Center for Public Service’s Newest Staff Member

The Morgridge Center for Public Service is thrilled to introduce Emily Wills as the new Event Planning and Administrative Specialist. With just a little over a month under her belt, Wills is exploring her position, discovering Madison and is excited to bring new ideas to the Morgridge Center. As the Event Planning and Administrative Specialist Wills works to put together Morgridge Center Events, especially pertaining to the Board of Advisors or partnerships with outside organizations. She organizes venue spaces to host each event and finds catering options. “One of my favorite parts of the job is thinking about meals and delicious restaurants in the area. We try to go with restaurants that further the Morgridge Center mission, so we look for small businesses that are owned by people of color or businesses with a civil justice mindset,” Wills says. Wills is also excited to be working with the large group of student interns in her position, getting to know their interests and serve as a mentor to them as they plan student-facing event. New to the Madison area, Wills was delighting to find a similar place to one that impacted her undergraduate experience at Northwestern University in Chicago. There, they have a Center for Civic Engagement where Wills was able to do community-based learning while working with a non-profit to cultivate deliverables and present research. “That was a really informative experience for me. I felt really able to explore and grow. Knowing that the Morgridge Center had similar work and interests was pretty intriguing and a nice fit,” Wills expressed. Previous to Wills moving to Madison, she worked as the associate development director at Mudlark Theater in the Chicago area, expressing her passion for theater. Teaching, fundraising and working with groups of people who were very passionate about the organization goals was a highlight in her position. Wills is looking forward to being a part of another passionate group of students and Board of Advisors as she learns more about their personal stories and why the Morgridge Center means so much to them. As Wills dives deeper into her role, she hopes to bring that background for the arts to the Morgridge Center by sparking new arts in action programs. “A lot of civic action artists are out there but they don’t have the connections or are not viewed as a civically engaged work of art,” Wills states. “So being able to do more searching and bring awareness of how Madison artists are responding to our area and the troubles that facing it would be really meaningful to me.” Wills is excited to bring her positive and optimistic look toward the future to the team, hopefully infusing her passions for the arts with the community service missions valued at the Morgridge Center.