$10 million gift to university from environmentalist Lynde B. Uihlein will be used towards the future of the Great Lakes

Philanthropist and environmentalist Lynde B. Uihlein has deep roots in Milwaukee, but her latest act of generosity is pointed squarely at the future of the Great Lakes.

In mid-May, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee announced a $10 million endowment from Uihlein to its School of Freshwater Sciences, one of the largest gifts in the university’s history and a defining moment for its work on water, climate, and regional resilience.

For a campus that has steadily built a reputation as a national leader in freshwater research, the commitment represents both validation and acceleration.

The gift is structured not as a one-time project grant but as enduring support that will underwrite people, programs, and infrastructure across the school. University officials said $4 million will provide flexible backing for the School of Freshwater Sciences itself, funding research operations, faculty and staff, student support, laboratory equipment, and community-facing work that connects science to local needs.

Another $4 million is designated for the Center for Water Policy, a unit Uihlein helped launch more than a decade ago to bring legal, economic, and policy expertise directly into conversation with freshwater science.

The remaining $2 million will support the university’s research vessels, ensuring that scientists and students can continue to work on the water in every season.

Those vessels are central to UWM’s identity as a Great Lakes institution. The long-serving R/V Neeskay has carried generations of students, faculty, and partners out onto Lake Michigan and beyond, gathering samples and data that inform everything from fisheries management to emerging contaminant research.

The new R/V Maggi Sue is being designed as the most advanced research vessel of its kind on the Great Lakes, equipped to support extended, multidisciplinary missions and a wider range of scientific instruments.

By dedicating a portion of her gift specifically to vessel operations, Uihlein is effectively underwriting the fieldwork that makes much of UWM’s freshwater science possible, from long-term monitoring to rapid response after storms or pollution events.

For Uihlein, a two-time UWM alumna, the endowment is as much an expression of place-based responsibility as it is a scientific investment. In announcing the gift, she emphasized that the Great Lakes provide “irreplaceable resources for nature and humanity alike” and described UWM’s freshwater researchers as an important safeguard for those waters. Her philanthropy has long reflected that conviction.

An heir of the Bradley and Pettit families, she has built an independent profile as a progressive donor and environmental advocate, often taking a different political and philanthropic path than other prominent branches of the Uihlein family.

In 1990, she founded what is now known as the Brico Fund, initially focused on feminist and women’s issues and later broadening to encompass environmental and progressive civic work across Wisconsin.

Through Brico and her personal giving, Uihlein has supported a wide range of organizations at the intersection of the environment, community development, and equity. Beneficiaries have included groups such as Midwest Environmental Advocates, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, Wisconsin Wetlands Association, Fondy Food Market, Growing Power, Walnut Way, and Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, among others, reflecting a preference for grassroots and systems-change efforts in the Midwest.

Her relationship with UWM has also been long and deliberate. In 2011, Uihlein provided a $2.6 million endowment that established the Center for Water Policy and funded an endowed chair, giving the university a permanent home for interdisciplinary work on water law and governance.

That earlier commitment came as questions around Great Lakes withdrawals, groundwater management, and regional climate resilience were intensifying, and it helped position UWM as a source of nonpartisan expertise in state and regional debates.

Over the years, she has made additional gifts to her alma mater, bringing her total support to well over $2.6 million even before this latest endowment and further signaling her belief in public higher education as an engine for environmental solutions.

Beyond Milwaukee, Uihlein has taken on a prominent role in national progressive and environmental politics. She has given substantial support to organizations such as EMILY’s List and NARAL Pro-Choice America and has been associated with conservation-focused groups, including those affiliated with the League of Conservation Voters.

Her philanthropy in the arts, including support for the Milwaukee Art Museum, rounds out a civic portfolio that ties environmental health, democratic participation, and cultural life together as mutually reinforcing ingredients of a healthy society.

The new endowment at UWM sits squarely within that larger pattern but also marks a scaling-up of her environmental bets on the Great Lakes. By pairing flexible operating support for a science-driven school, sustained funding for a policy center, and dedicated backing for research vessels, the gift is designed to move knowledge from the lab and the water to the statute book and the shoreline.

It will help UWM attract and retain top faculty, recruit talented students, sustain long-term research campaigns, and undertake policy analysis that can shape water management decisions across the region.

For the university, the gift is not only a financial milestone but also a vote of confidence in its strategy of building a comprehensive freshwater enterprise—one that couples advanced science with applied policy and community engagement.

For the Great Lakes, it represents a significant infusion of long-term, locally rooted capital into the institutions charged with understanding and protecting one of the world’s largest freshwater systems.

And for Lynde B. Uihlein, it is the latest chapter in a philanthropic career defined by sustained commitment to Wisconsin’s waters, communities, and public institutions, now expressed in a way that will shape freshwater science and policy for decades to come.