President, Children’s Wisconsin Foundation
Senior Vice President, Children’s Wisconsin
Meg Brzyski Nelson is president of Children’s Wisconsin Foundation and senior vice president for Children’s Wisconsin, the state's only health system dedicated 100% to kids and teens. Through both broad-based and very individualized methods, Meg and the Foundation team work to build brand awareness for Children’s as a cause; deepen volunteerism and advocacy; increase philanthropic revenue; and demonstrate gratitude to the community and grateful patient families.
With the Children’s Wisconsin Foundation, Meg successfully led Brighter Than Ever, a six-year engagement and philanthropy campaign effort for Children’s Wisconsin, the most ambitious and comprehensive in its history. Raising $308 million and completed in 2025, the campaign galvanized the community’s generosity, volunteerism and advocacy to fuel the Children’s Wisconsin mission, especially the work that commercial insurance and public payers do not fund: research that eradicates and changes the trajectory of diseases so children can lead healthy lives; programs that wrap around and empower kids and families to live full lives; and integrated mental and behavioral health care that gives kids and teens access to care when and where they need it most.
Children’s Wisconsin was founded by the community over 130 years ago and is a top-ranked independent pediatric health system and one of the largest social service agencies in the state with more than 7.3 million connections per year. Meg has been in her role at Children’s for more than 10 years. Prior to Children’s Wisconsin, Meg served as associate vice president of university advancement for Marquette University, where she was part of leading large-scale fundraising efforts; donor cultivation and stewardship activities; and parent, donor and alumni outreach and communication functions.
Meg earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and an Executive Master of Business Administration from Marquette University. Currently, she serves as a volunteer and advocate for her alma mater. Meg is a Milwaukee Business Journal's Forty Under 40 alumna, a 2006 recognition honoring outstanding business and community leaders. In 2025 and 2026, Meg was named one of the Milwaukee Business Journal’s Power Brokers, and in 2025 she was named among Wisconsin’s Women of Influence by the Business Journal. In addition, she has received awards for her teaching and leadership.
She is associated with Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and YPO Gold, a national and international networking group of business leaders with at least 40 employees and $25 million in revenues. She serves as the incoming learning officer and board member of YPO Gold Wisconsin. Meg is also a board member and chair of the education and learning committee for The Woodmark Group, is a not-for-profit organization whose members are premier children’s hospitals in the United States and Canada. The hospitals’ fundraising teams share the vision of leading the advancement of philanthropy to improve health for children everywhere.
Whether in her work or volunteer roles, Meg loves helping organizations and people reach their full potential. Meg is adept at helping organizations develop vision and complementary strategic work plans and rallying volunteers to a common cause. She currently serves as an executive committee board member of Next Door, an early childhood development program serving Milwaukee’s central city and is former chair of the board of PEARLS for Teen Girls, an empowerment program targeting at-risk girls in Milwaukee. She is married to Duane Nelson and has three young adult step-children.