Member Profile: Nancy Braund Boruch
Winter 2009–10
Nancy Braund Boruch received her Phi Beta Kappa key in 1964 from Wooster College in Ohio, where she graduated with honors, earning a degree in history. She went on to teach American history at two colleges. She also attended graduate school at Georgetown University, obtaining a master’s degree in American diplomatic history.
Eventually she decided to enter the commercial real estate business, first with Continental Illinois, where she rose to the rank of vice president of the real estate department, and then with several other firms. In 1993, Nancy became one of the founders and the CEO of Bonsall, Braund, Boruch, & Associates, an Evanston-based consulting firm specializing strategic real estate asset and portfolio management.
Nancy says she is driven by a desire to help others, which stems from her parents, who each had service-oriented professions: Her dad was a minister, and her mom was a teacher. Her parents also were active in the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
“My purpose in life is to make the world a little better because I walked through it,” Nancy says. To that end, she has volunteered for a number of worthy organizations, including the Neighborhood Capital Institute, the Chicago Theological Seminary, and her beloved alma mater, Wooster College, where she served as a trustee for six years and is helping to plan the 2014 class reunion. Also, following in her father’s footsteps, Nancy recently went back to the seminary and has served as a pastoral care counselor and as an “on-call” chaplain at Evanston Northwestern Hospital.
When Nancy joined the PBKACA Executive Board in 2008, she brought not only her enthusiastic and generous spirit, but also her exceptional talents in strategic planning and membership outreach. One of the reasons she enjoys serving on PBKACA’s Board is that she is able to “meet so many other Phi Betes who have multiple interests and who are passionate and concerned about what’s going on in the world.”
In her spare time, Nancy likes to travel to her cabin in the woods in Western Pennsylvania. She also is at work on a book of poetry and short stories.