Alexander Ross Group

Alexander Ross Group provides unparalleled service to nonprofit organizations. Time and again, clients commend our team members for their thoughtful attention and precisely-relevant counsel. Each Alexander Ross Group consultant brings more than a decade of nonprofit experience, providing leadership in development, marketing, public relations, and nonprofit management.

Tracy Marks

Communications Director
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Shannon Lohr AlexanderTracy believes that every organization has a unique story to tell. Her expertise is helping them to tell that story in captivating ways that drive action. For more than 20 years, she has galvanized strategic communication primarily for Chicago area nonprofits (including a half-dozen major cultural institutions and several social service agencies), universities and healthcare organizations, among others. Projects include annual reports, capital campaign material, cases for support, stewardship communication, direct mail solicitation, strategic plans, museum exhibit content, crisis communication, websites, press releases, blogs, editorial/articles, and speeches.

Tracy understands that while nonprofits share similarities, each is distinct, and that knowing the right questions to ask is essential to providing strategic answers. She consistently offers sage communication counsel to meet each organization's unique needs. Clients appreciate her enthusiasm, compassion, fast learning curve, and expertise distilling heady information into user-friendly, inspirational editorial, and for helping them to raise awareness, attendance, and funds. Tracy earned a B.A. with Distinction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Psychology and Journalism. She has led her own firm (Beyond Words Strategic Communication) since 2002, providing communication counsel, freelance writing, and project management services to an array of organizations and businesses. She joined the Alexander Ross Group in 2012.

Marie Turks

Senior Consultant
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Shannon Lohr AlexanderDedicated to helping nonprofit organizations to grow and thrive, Marie brings more than 15 years of management expertise within both private and public sectors. Clients include more than 25 nonprofit arts and culture, healthcare, and social service organizations. Marie excels in consulting with domestic and global executive-level leadership and direct service teams.

She has a joint Master’s degree in Public Policy and Fine Arts, with an emphasis in nonprofit management, from Carnegie Mellon University’s H. John Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, and a Bachelor’s degree in Art History from the University of Chicago. Marie is a past recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts - Arts Administration Fellowship.

Along with her nonprofit background, Marie enjoyed a career in global strategic planning with one of largest IT corporations in Silicon Valley. For the past decade, she has leveraged corporate best practices in her consulting engagements with many nonprofits, both on the West Coast and in the Chicago area. An accomplished literary artist, she launched a small multi-media and performing arts initiative in 2012, that focuses on the intersection between science, art, and theology. Current consulting work maximizes strategic planning, fiscal management, grant writing, best practice research, collaborative intelligence, and benchmarking for nonprofits. Marie offers a wealth of information about Chicago area funders, with particular expertise in foundation and government sectors.

our team