Rebecca Ford Selected as Judge on New MacArthur Competition Panel

Attorney Rebecca L. Ford, counsel at Scharf Banks Marmor LLC, was chosen to serve as a judge for the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change competition, which will award a $100 million grant to a single proposal designed to help solve a critical problem affecting people, places, or the planet.

“Solving society’s most pressing problems isn’t easy, but we believe it can be done,” said MacArthur President Julia Stasch.“Potential solutions may go unnoticed or under-resourced and are waiting to be brought to scale. Every three years, we plan to award $100 million to help make one of these solutions a reality. Through 100&Change, we want to inspire, encourage, and support other people’s ideas, here in our hometown Chicago, across the nation and around the world, about how to address major challenges and enable real progress toward a solution.”

The competition, open to organizations working in any field or endeavor anywhere in the world, received 1,904 applications, and 800 proposals will move to the next stage.

As a judge for 100&Change, Ms. Ford will evaluate proposals randomly assigned to her according to a strict set of criteria that is available on the competition’s website. In the summer of 2017, five finalists will be selected to present their solutions during a live event in the fall of 2017.