David Stouck '26

David Stouck, MBA ’26, was a natural fit for his role as a Golub Capital Board Fellow at the ChiArts Foundation. A musician and former Warner Music Group executive who worked with youth organizations and music nonprofits throughout his career, he expected to help strengthen the nonprofit that supports the Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts). Instead, the organization entered the most tumultuous period in its history, turning his fellowship into a lesson in adapting strategy during a crisis.

Stouck was one of 85 members of the Kellogg School of Management Class of ’26 selected for the Golub Capital Board Fellows Program that pairs MBA candidates with local nonprofits, where they serve as nonvoting board members and lead strategic projects. Through the program, he joined the board of the ChiArts Foundation, which supported ChiArts, a public high school that combines traditional academics with pre-professional training in music, dance, theater, visual arts and creative writing.

From the Studio to the Boardroom

The fellowship drew on interests Stouck had pursued for years. A drummer, songwriter and producer, he studied East Asian Studies and sociology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He spent the first ten years of his career at Warner Music Group, including five years in Hong Kong, where he led artist development and helped expand the company’s presence across Asia. He came to Kellogg to broaden his business training and ended up putting his experience in the music industry to use in a new way.

Working closely with ChiArts Foundation leadership, Stouck set out to develop a more strategic approach to partnerships with civic, arts and educational institutions. While the nonprofit had collaborated with museums and cultural organizations in the past, many of those relationships were informal or one-time events.

Stouck researched programs at the Cleveland School of the Arts, LaGuardia High School in New York City and the Denver School of the Arts, interviewing leaders and teachers at each organization and identifying potential models. Based on his research, he developed recommendations and started drafting a strategic partnerships playbook to help guide ChiArts’ long-term strategy.

Strategy During a Crisis

But as Stouck started his second year at Kellogg in the fall of 2025, the school’s future was suddenly in question. Leaders at ChiArts announced the school would not seek renewal of its contract with Chicago Public Schools (CPS), raising concerns about what would come next for the school and its students. The decision was both financial and strategic: leaders cited a deficit they viewed as unsustainable and saw district operation as the surest way to guarantee the school's future amid a difficult fundraising and political climate. But for the students, parents and alumni who packed CPS board meetings, that calculus didn't outweigh what the school meant to them — and what they feared losing.

“I had to leave classes to join emergency board meetings,” he recalled. “It was a really crazy time, but in the end it was also very uplifting.”

In response to the school’s potential closure, Stouck watched as hundreds of students, parents, alumni and community members rallied in support of the school, showing up en masse to Chicago board of education meetings to advocate for ChiArts. For Stouck, the outpouring of support underscored the school’s importance to the city.

“To hear all these members of Chicago talking about what ChiArts meant to them, what it meant to their children, what it meant for the community and for the arts, was so inspiring,” he said.

Ultimately, the Chicago Board of Education voted to keep ChiArts open as a district-run school. While the decision secured the school’s future, it also ended the ChiArts Foundation’s role in supporting it. Under the new arrangement, Chicago Public Schools worked through an existing partnership with another foundation. The ChiArts Foundation sunset its operations on June 30, 2026.

Adapting the Playbook

Rather than rewriting the playbook from scratch, Stouck planned ahead and developed two sets of recommendations: one fit for the school’s longstanding conservatory-based model, in which students receive arts training in addition to their academic coursework, and another fit for the more traditional public school structure, a possible outcome of the district’s increasing involvement. 

“By providing two different sets of recommendations, I was able to keep the playbook malleable enough that it was still applicable even when the ground shifted beneath us,” he said.

One lesson emerged repeatedly from his conversations with arts education leaders around the country: successful partnerships center on the teaching artists themselves.

“The teaching artists at these programs often have connections that run deep in the city’s arts world,” Stouck said.

Based on his research, Stouck recommended that ChiArts form a flagship partnership for each of its five conservatories, with a teaching artist leading each one. Partnerships with museums, galleries, orchestras, dance companies and other cultural institutions, he found, were most successful when teaching artists played a central role.

“By involving the teaching artists, you increase the likelihood that the partnership will be sustained and meaningful,” he said. “You’re starting three steps ahead because they have existing relationships in the creative community.”

Lesson in Governance

Being a Board Fellow also gave Stouck a firsthand lesson in nonprofit governance. During his fellowship, leadership changed twice, reinforcing the importance of strong systems and clear decision-making.

“Frameworks outlive people,” he said. “The thing that survives a leadership transition isn’t an individual relationship. It’s a process and a structure.”

As his fellowship concluded, Stouck met with ChiArts’ new principal to share his recommendations for building strategic partnerships. With the Foundation winding down, Stouck framed his recommendations as a handoff — a durable playbook for whoever carries ChiArts' partnerships work forward under the district.

“Organizations facing real uncertainty are where the work stops being an academic exercise and starts becoming something that makes a real impact in the community,” he said. “ChiArts was in crisis for most of my project, and that made the experience far more meaningful because the work wasn’t just appreciated. It was needed.