Ileana is the executive director of development for Bascom Palmer Eye Institute where she is responsible for securing major and principal gifts for the Department of Ophthalmology. She oversees all facets of fund-raising campaigns and events, including the expansion of Bascom Palmer’s new eye center in Naples. Under her leadership, the development team has raised more than $35 million for Bascom Palmer’s clinical and research endeavors.
In 2010, Ileana came to Bascom Palmer from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center where she served as director of the annual fund, corporate relations and pediatric oncology. In her seven years at Sylvester she helped develop Slice of wellBEINGwell, a community outreach program which hosts University of Miami doctors as lecturers at various locations with the aim of educating South Florida on the important work Sylvester is doing to treat and eradicate cancer, managed Sylvester’s corporate sponsorship program and coordinated their direct mail campaigns.
From 1990-1993 Ileana was the editorial assistant to the Journal of Regional Immunology at the University of Miami. She then became the executive assistant to the president/director of research at Schepens Eye Research Institute where she managed all aspects of the office including donor relations and major gift prospecting. While in that position, she graduated cum laude from Harvard with a bachelor's degree of liberal arts. Ileana also holds a master's degree in liberal arts from the University of Miami.