Dianne Bailey Receives Leadership Charlotte Legacy Award

Dianne Chipps Bailey received the Schley R. Lyons Circle of Excellence Award from Leadership Charlotte as part of its annual Legacy Awards breakfast on May 11. The Lyons Circle of Excellence Award is given to a Leadership Charlotte program graduate who has shown "outstanding leadership in keeping with the ideals of the organization."

Leadership Charlotte is an immersion program aimed at equipping emerging and existing leaders with the opportunity to learn about and serve the Charlotte community. Bailey is a graduate of Leadership Charlotte Class 25.

"My greatest wish is that my legacy would be helping people find their voice and own their power to create meaningful change in our community," Bailey said in a video shown at the awards ceremony.

Bailey is a passionate advocate for philanthropy, civic engagement and women's leadership. She leads the Nonprofit Organizations and Foundations Practice Group at Robinson Bradshaw and has dedicated her legal career to the representation of tax-exempt organizations, their senior management and volunteer leaders.

Bailey's professional commitment to nonprofit organizations also is deeply personal. A faithful community leader, she previously chaired the boards of the Women's Impact Fund, Discovery Place, Mecklenburg Bar Foundation, Presbyterian Hospital Foundation, Women Executives and the First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte Diaconate, where she also served as an elder. Bailey is a member of the Women's Philanthropy Institute national council and was a founding director of Women's Impact Fund and Women's Collective Giving Grantmakers Network.

Bailey graduated with high honors from the University of California at Berkeley and received her law degree cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center. She was named The Mecklenburg Times' Woman of the Year in 2015.