Medical College of Wisconsin Chair of the Board

Community Volunteer
Retired President and Publisher, Journal Communications

Elizabeth (Betsy) Brenner is an active volunteer in the Milwaukee community. Along with her service as a Medical College of Wisconsin trustee and member of its executive committee, she sits on the executive committees of the Greater Milwaukee Committee and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. Her additional board service includes the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee and Milwaukee Film.

Ms. Brenner stepped down in 2016 after more than three decades in the newspaper industry. She was named publisher and president of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in January 2005, and also served as executive vice president of Journal Communications and its spinoff company, Journal Media Group. During her tenure at Wisconsin’s largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel won three Pulitzer Prizes, including one awarded in 2011 that told the story of groundbreaking genomic research conducted at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Prior to coming to Milwaukee, Ms. Brenner was president and publisher of The News Tribune in Tacoma, WA and The SUN in Bremerton, WA. She had earlier leadership responsibilities at the Denver Rocky Mountain News, The Miami Herald and The New York Times. She began her career as a business news reporter at The Chicago Tribune.

Ms. Brenner attended Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism in 1976 and Master of Business Administration degree in 1978.