Interview conducted by CWIP member, Shruti Saxena

One of my favorite things is when different worlds collide, so you can imagine my delight when the Communications committee at Chicago Women In Philanthropy (CWIP) asked me about spotlighting the CWIP Board Co-Chairs for an upcoming newsletter and the blog. I met Diane Knoepke for the first time at the CWIP annual breakfast, and more recently at the WLMP 2024-25 Cohort Welcome Dinner - one of the many incredible CWIP initiatives, and something that brings me professional joy through my involvement.   

As with the beginning of all my interviews, I ask her about her origin story and she reframes that question interestingly: from where are you from to who are you from (I love this). She  tells me that she grew up in a family that valued self-reliance and initiative. Her mother started working in her family’s landscaping business at the age of 10, which is also how she later met Diane’s dad. The family ethos centered around figuring things out and getting one’s hands dirty, both literally and metaphorically. She laughs that her hands-on approach over the years has tended more toward the cerebral, and she aims to integrate the joys of reading, writing and thoughtful conversations throughout her life and work.

As an only child, she observed her parents “all-in” mentality that defined their household. Volunteering wasn’t something her family discussed explicitly; it was simply woven into their lives as something they did. Her parents didn’t often use the terms “philanthropy” or “volunteering,” but their actions reflected a deep commitment to contributing to their communities, and this has continued to guide her throughout her life and career. 

Challenging harmful or unfair status quo was a cornerstone of her upbringing, and has been a consistent theme in her personal and professional life. She went to public school in South Bend, Indiana, and she tells me that her school was more diverse than what people typically imagine and compared to public schools in nearby affluent suburbs, but also that the nature of that diversity was limited to a few key visible differences, leaving many other dimensions to be understood. During the late 90’s her school had paths for young mothers who attended half-day programs, and there was a nursery for their children on site. She mentions that while community disinvestment and systemic racial inequity drove real problems such as in-school violence and low graduation rates, she values her experiences. During key developmental years, she learned how actually knowing people teaches you to address and disrupt the instinctive stereotyping behavior she observed others go along with without question. For example, her tennis team overheard another team’s coach telling her team, with a derisive laugh, to “pack their bulletproof vests” with their uniforms when they played Diane’s school the following week. While it angered her and her teammates, she also saw how the lack of exposure to difference can breed ignorance and how that ignorance can be willfully spread.   

In undergrad, she initially considered pursuing Law while studying English – she tells me that her involvement in several activities outside of the classroom meant that her grades were average, shifting her career choice away from an immediate transition to graduate school from undergrad. At the same time, her parents encouraged her to think about what she might truly enjoy and to find a creative and fulfilling career. 

One year she interned with the Thanksgiving Parade in Chicago and recruited nearly 1,000 community volunteers for the many tasks a parade involves. After graduation, she joined the organization full-time for a year, and it helped her see her talent for solving problems, both in real-time responses and over time via developing strategies for change.

Over the next 15 years, she built a career rooted in problem-solving. She worked for several consulting and professional services firms focused on social sector organizations. She led Dress for Success in Chicago during a relaunch of the organization as a Midwest regional office. Though her tenure in a nonprofit staff leadership role – something she had always envisaged – was brief, it offered her valuable insights and reinvigorated her empathy and understanding of her  consulting clients.

Throughout the course of her career, she has worked with incredible people, many of whom are her friends now. She tells me how she views people at workplaces not as families, but as neighbors, and good neighbors at that, who watch out for each other (more about the concept at this link). She sees the deep care and respect people demonstrate as an expression of a professional practice of love, which many of us in the sector do, but perhaps don’t name as such. This exchange of time, talent, and resources in organizations is not about reciprocity, rather it is an expression of mutuality, and often that can be the practical and mundane pieces of organizational management that often do not get featured in our impact reports. As she puts it so well, the revolution needs more project managers (side note: she recommends the YA book and/or movie Moxie - written by her college friend Jennifer Mathieu, which brings this sentiment alive in a few key moments).

She tells me that a key lesson she continues to learn and practice, at work and outside, is to figure out her own values and non-negotiables, and to extract herself from those spaces that don’t line up with what she needs to work to improve her own wellbeing and regenerate her energy. 

She refuels best when she finds the right balance between her extroverted side and spending time alone on building and learning, as well as being surprised by new ways of thinking from others. She laughs as she tells me how being married to an introvert has shown her the power of processing before reacting. 

She now serves as Director Of Program Engagement and Outreach, and Instructor, at Northwestern University’s MS in Learning and Organizational Change program. I ask her about her engagement with Chicago Women In Philanthropy, and she tells me that it started since she was working with a lot of Chicago organizations through her consulting work. She sees the need to find places of community and learning, and CWIP was a huge win in both of those categories. She joined the programming committee, and saw opportunities to connect people, and enable them to see their leadership and voices – particularly how they can be advocates beyond just their organization and title. Increasing our connections to what we want to see happen is a key motivator for all Diane does. 

She laughs as she tells me that most of her life she has acted as a “switch,” always either fully engaged or completely turned off and is continually working to be more of a “dial,” which adjusts intensity incrementally. An early turning point and a-ha moment came years ago when she began working with a trainer and started running. At first, she approached each race as a task to accomplish, focused primarily on completing each distance. Through therapy and coaching, she has shifted her mindset and now tries focusing on enjoyment and experimentation and appreciating experiences for their own sake. She says she’s a work in progress!

As she looks forward, she knows that she doesn’t always have to be the person who is the finisher or most visible in the work – she wants to focus on being a builder from whatever position makes sense for the work - this social change approach is one she often returns to to recenter herself.