Year Honored: 2019
Biography
Drewry N. Fennell is the Chief Officer for Strategic Communication and Development for Christiana Care Health System, Delaware’s largest private employer. In this role, she is responsible for leading communications strategy, patient experience, and philanthropic efforts in alignment with Christiana Care Health System’s strategic aims: optimal health, exceptional experience, and organizational vitality. Fennell also serves as senior advisor to President and CEO Janice E. Nevin, M.D., MPH, on board and trustee engagement.
Prior to joining Christiana Care in 2017, Fennell was Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor to Governor Jack Markell of Delaware. Fennell served as the Executive Director of the Criminal Justice Council of Delaware, from June 2010 to February 2013, providing criminal justice policy research and planning for the State of Delaware. Before that, she was Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware for nearly ten years.
Fennell began her legal career as an attorney in private practice with Young Conaway Stargatt and Taylor, LLP in Wilmington, DE. She received an undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware and received her law degree with honors in 1993 from Rutgers University School of Law in Camden, NJ, where she served on the Rutgers Law Journal. Following her graduation from law school, she clerked for the Honorable Bernard M. Balick of the Delaware Court of Chancery.
As an active citizen in the community, Fennell serves on the Board of Directors of The Grand Opera House and Playhouse, Delaware Public Media, Delaware Center for Justice, Music School of Delaware, Brandywine Pastoral Institute, and Friends of Hockessin Colored School #107, a historic school building that was the subject of Brown v. Board of Education. She also served on the vestry of Trinity Episcopal Parish.
In 2008, Drew received the New Lawyers Distinguished Service Award from the Delaware State Bar Association and the Delaware Stonewall LGBT Rights Pioneer Award. She also received the 25th Annual Mary Philbrook Public Interest Award from Rutgers University School of Law in 2010; the Kandler Award for outstanding leadership in civil liberties from the ACLU of Delaware in 2012; the Symbol of Justice 50th Anniversary Award from the Delaware Human Relations Commission in 2012; the Distinguished Mentoring Award from the Delaware State Bar Association in 2013, The Order of the First State, 2017, and the 2018 Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay Woman of the Year.
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Sources and Additional Information
Delaware Women's Hall of Fame honors Drewry N. Fennell. ChristianaCare News. (2019, October 22). Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://news.christianacare.org/2019/10/delaware-womens-hall-of-fame-honors-drewry-n-fennell/.
Drew Fennell. ChristianaCare. (2020, August 4). Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://christianacare.org/people/drew-fennell/.
- Collections: 2019