Generosity as a Way of Life: Lisa Ryan Burke’s Legacy of Kindness

March 25, 2024

In this episode of You Can’t Take it With You, host Jim Dunlop welcomes Lisa Ryan Burke to discuss the profound influence of living a life centered on generosity. They talk about Lisa’s personal journey of philanthropy, her innovative approach to encouraging acts of kindness, and the lasting legacy of giving back to the community.

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Lisa Ryan Burke is an experienced senior executive recruiter and has led numerous searches for blue-chip clients in corporate communications, public relations, marketing, and public affairs. Her career spans over three decades, primarily working at Heyman Associates, the leading executive search firm focused exclusively on communications, corporate affairs, marketing, and investor relations.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in communications and theater from Susquehanna University, where she later served on both the Alumni Board and the Board of Trustees. Beyond her professional accomplishments, Lisa is known for her active involvement in various industry associations, nonprofits, and advisory roles, exemplifying her dedication to giving back to the community and fostering discussions on critical issues like women’s health and wellness.

Episode Summary:

What does it mean to live a life where generosity is not an afterthought but a guiding principle? How can everyday acts of kindness shape a legacy of giving that impacts individuals and communities alike?

According to Lisa Ryan Burke, a seasoned executive and philanthropist, living generously means integrating acts of kindness into daily life, regardless of the scale. From paying for a stranger’s coffee to significant contributions like establishing the Hawk Hub at Susquehanna University in honor of her late husband, Lisa’s story illustrates that generosity can manifest itself in a myriad of ways, each with its own profound impact on both the giver and receiver. Her belief in the power of personal philanthropy serves as a testament to how individual actions can contribute to a larger narrative of kindness and community support.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

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Whether you are planning for the future, investing for growth, or navigating financial hurdles, Advent Partners is here to provide insights, recommendations, and a clear financial roadmap.

To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit AdventPartnersFP.com.

Episode Transcript:

Intro 0:00

Welcome to the You Can’t Take it With You show where we feature stories around generosity designed to inspire and encourage others to do meaningful things in their communities. Now, here’s your host, Jim Dunlop.

Jim Dunlop 0:17

Hi. Jim Dunlop here, a wealth advisor and host of the show where I sit down with people who get it when it comes to generosity. I’m excited to have guests who can give us stories on generosity to not only inspire listeners, but to give practical ideas on ways we can give. Today’s guest is Lisa Ryan Burke. But before we get to Lisa, I want to share that this episode is brought to you by Advent Partners, get ready for good. Advent is a financial planning team dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey. Advent’s seasoned team of professionals is committed to guiding you toward your financial goals. We offer tailored solutions based on your specific needs. From standalone financial planning to Integrated Financial Management, we help our clients get ready for good. Whether you’re planning for the future investing for growth or navigating financial hurdles, Advent Partners is here to provide insights, recommendations and a clear financial roadmap. To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success visit readyforgood.com. So I have known Lisa Ryan Burke, our guest today for a number of years and I might best describe her as the cheerleader in chief at our alma mater, Susquehanna University when it comes to generosity, and it’s why I’m really excited to have her today. But let me tell you a little bit about her first. Most recently, Lisa was a client partner at Heyman Associates based in New York. Over her three decades at the firm, she led hundreds of successful executive searches in corporate communications, public relations, marketing, communications, branding and public affairs for the firm’s blue chip clients including fortune 500 corporations, and nonprofit organizations. Lisa earned her bachelor’s degree in communications and theater from Susquehanna University where she is a member of the Board of Trustees. Prior to that she served on the University’s Alumni Board. Throughout her career, Lisa was active in a variety of industry associations, nonprofits, and including serving on the board of the Public Affairs Council. Welcome, Lisa.

Lisa Ryan Burke 2:20

Thank you. Happy to be here.

Jim Dunlop 2:23

Well, Lisa, before we get into some stories, could tell me a little bit about you. Could you give me a few-minute autobiography that catches our listeners up to who Lisa is and what brought her to here today?

Lisa Ryan Burke 2:38

Okay, so I assume you mean beyond my career?

Jim Dunlop 2:41

Yes, yes, yes.

Lisa Ryan Burke 2:44

Okay. Well, I do, I have to say, I like how you introduced me, because I do think of myself as the cheerleader. And I think of myself as a cheerleader in a lot of different ways. I do give back a lot. I am honored. I’m on an advisory team right now for Let’s Talk: Women’s Health & Wellness. And we’re putting together a symposium that’s going to cover kind of every health topic for women. And the way we describe it is this is the place to have the tough conversations. So I’m doing that I’m also very involved with other organizations. And for some reason I get pulled in too, people call me up and say, Will, you do this, and I’m the one who says, sure happy to do it. But I’m also very, very passionate about my art class. I take an art class on Tuesday nights, and it’s something I don’t give up. People asked me, you know, when you’re available, I’ll say, anytime, but don’t ask me to do it on a Tuesday night. It’s my place it’s my Zen. And it’s something I hold very near and dear to me. And I like to work out. As I said, I go to the gym probably every morning, I’m there by seven. And that’s my place. I complain a lot when I’m there. I’m happy when I leave.

Jim Dunlop 4:11

Yeah, right. Happy to get there, happy to go. All right. So you’ve retired from kind of your professional career, although you’re doing some other stuff as well. But before that, and I know you graduated from Susquehanna. Where were you from and what got you to Susquehanna into the career path that you chose?

Lisa Ryan Burke 4:33

Sure. And I love that story. By the way, I grew up in New Jersey, and ended up at Susquehanna because my mother happened to be talking to someone whose son was a senior, and she said that person had had a great experience at Susquehanna. And I’d looked at it and thought I’ll you know, yeah, I’ll apply, and I got in fairly early in the year, and my father drove me out to Susquehanna. And as we pulled in, I said, this is where I want to go. My father said, Excuse me, but do you think you want to maybe take a tour here? Because I do believe and you know, when it’s like everything in life, you know when it’s right. And I did, and I walked out of meeting with an admissions counselor, and I said to my father, write the check. And he said, if I write this check, you are going here. And so that’s what happened. I said, write the check. And it was a great four years. I don’t know who enjoyed it more to be honest with you, me or my father, really. My father loved Susquehanna. On Parents Weekend, my mother was always the one saying, um, we have to go home now. But it was during college that I actually met someone very influential in my life. Bill Heyman. Connect to Heyman associates, right in college, was in admissions, and a friend and a friend of mine, and I wanted to be tour guides. So we went into the office and said, that’s what we wanted to do. And they said, go in and talk to that guy. And that guy was Bill Heyman. And so my friend, Bruce Toruk. And I became tour guides. And I followed a very similar career path of Bill’s. I went into college admissions, and spent actually five years in college admissions, and then I went to hospital recruiting. And I thought, by the way, I thought it was very cool then because I was in Philadelphia, and I moved into city into center city, and I told everyone Aw, I’m a city slicker now look at me. Yeah, I was far from a city slicker. I did hospital recruiting for a while, and my boss there. Another person, again, very influential in my life was really honest with me. And he said, I’m not going anywhere, Lisa. And I think you need to get into the business world. And he said, If you want to stay, that’s fine. But I will support you to leave too. So I went and did a corporate gig for a while. And I was a corporate recruiter for 18 months, who never saw the inside of the company she worked for because I was on the road 100% of my time. Wow. Yeah. And then I decided that that wasn’t the life I wanted to lead. And I called Bill Heyman. And Bill, and I remained friends for all those years. I called Bill and I said, You know what I’ve done with my life, but I need to keep my feet on the ground. And he was with another search firm. And I went into New York City sat with him. And he was giving me the names of other search firms. And his boss walked in and said, Why are you doing that? Why isn’t she coming here? And he said, Well, she and I are friends. And he said, that’s your problem, not my problem. So I joined the cantor concern. And Bill was going to go out on his own after about close to two years, and of me being there. And Bill looked at me and didn’t say anything. And I knew what he was saying. And I joined him. Shortly after he started Heyman Associates, I was the first employee, and we had a great 33 years together. As a matter of fact, I’m going to see Bill Heyman tomorrow. And as I always he said to me, I started the dance with you. I’m leaving the dance with you. So we timed our transition out. And since then, and this is kind of the big joke of all of my friends. So how long were you really retired Lisa? I’m doing some consulting for another search firm Academic Search, which CEO is the former president of Susquehanna. So I am consulting for them right now. And then.

Jim Dunlop 9:13

That’s our friend our friend, Jay Lemons.

Lisa Ryan Burke 9:17

Yes. And I also have started a fractional that you know, the big buzzword now, fractional communications business with four other colleagues. So there most days I feel like I’m working more than full time. And hopefully this is all going to pay off in the end. No, but I’m having a lot of fun doing it. So that’s me.

Jim Dunlop 9:41

Good. Well, thank you, Lisa, for giving us that background and it’s your story and journey has been pretty fun. And I know that you’re a very generous person. You are a huge advocate for giving. So tell me about your what drives your own person, personal generosity and maybe what is your generosity origin story? How did you become this way?

Lisa Ryan Burke 10:10

It’s all on. It’s all about my father.

Jim Dunlop 10:12

Okay. What was it? What was his name?

Lisa Ryan Burke 10:15

My father was Jim Ryan. And my father and his college roommate started an organization called Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Yorktown Heights. Yes, we always had a black lab in our family. And my father never worked there. His college roommate’s father was also in a fundraiser. And they started Guiding Eyes for the Blind. And I remember always my father giving back, you know, we lived in New Jersey and Yorktown Heights was, I mean, it wasn’t that far away. But he went to board meetings. And I was always saying to him, What is this? What is this? And he said, you need to volunteer, you need to give back. And I remember saying to my father, how do you know? How do you know when to give back? And how do you know where to give back? And once again, it goes back to you’re going to know when it’s the right thing. And I think that was instilled in me from a very young age. And in seventh grade. We had to write in our yearbook for our yearbooks, what we wanted to be when we grew up, okay. And I wrote, I wanted to be a philanthropist. And all of my friends were, you know, I didn’t tell any, we didn’t tell each other kind of what we wrote. And I remember when the yearbooks came out and was coming over to me going, what, what’s a philanthropist? I said, it’s when you give back. It’s when you’re generous with your time, your money, everything. And since then, I think it’s just been, it’s probably part of my DNA.

Jim Dunlop 12:01

So since you were a young girl, the thing you’ve wanted to do more than anything, is this be generous and give it away?

Lisa Ryan Burke 12:08

That’s it. I did. I, I truly am. You know, you hear all the stories of people with tremendous wealth, giving back. And I like to think that my part that I’ve earned, I want to give back. And also I do two other things. I do some other things, though. Yeah. Always On Valentine’s Day.

Jim Dunlop 12:35

Which was yesterday.

Lisa Ryan Burke 12:37

Yes, yesterday. So this is very timely. I always go somewhere and pay for the person behind me. You know, it’s that whole pay it forward. Probably started actually, when I was driving it on the Garden State Parkway, you know, before there was EZ Pass and you had to pay for tolls. Yeah, I would always pull up, I would always pull up and say, I’m paying for the person behind me too. I just used to think that that part was fun. I love that. But on Valentine’s Day, I always do. I think of it as random acts of loving kindness. And I always want to pay for someone and they’re always shocked. You know, they’re always looking at me like, Well, why are you doing that? And I look at them and say, why not?

Jim Dunlop 13:23

So here we are February 15. When we’re recording this, can you tell me what you did yesterday?

Lisa Ryan Burke 13:30

Well, I always go into this one. It started actually, when I was working in the city, and I always went I always got an iced tea in the morning. It’s nothing big. But when I got an iced tea in the morning, and at Dunkin Donuts, and I would pay for the person behind me, so I went into our place here. Gregory’s and I had to wait for someone to come in. And this. This couple came in, and I had seen them prior. And they came in and they were ordering. You know, I just kind of stepped aside and I told the cashier what I was doing. Yeah. So they came up and they were ordering like everything in the place. I’m just standing there and I’m thinking I don’t care. And so he goes to hand his credit card over. And they said, No, we don’t, sorry. She paid for you and this guy that mean this guy looks at me and he goes what? You know, what did you do that for? And I said Happy Valentine’s Day. And the woman that he was with she was like, oh my god, I can’t believe you’re doing this. Happy Valentine’s Day and I walked out. That’s awesome. And then on my I had a big birthday, and I’m not telling you which one. I decided that I was going to that year do that. Many random acts of love and kindness. And so I would do the same thing. I’d walk in places and pay for someone or I mean, it was little things just like helping people too. But the funniest one is one of my friends sent me a text because he knew I was doing it. And he said, well as a random act of love and kindness, I’ve always wanted a boat. Will you buy me a boat? And I said, No. But I do, I do love to do that kind of thing and I think everybody should do it.

Jim Dunlop 15:31

What a great idea. Yeah.

Lisa Ryan Burke 15:34

I highly recommend it.

Jim Dunlop 15:36

Well, very good. So I want to ask you to share a little story about generosity to inspire listeners. And I think the story that if you’re willing to share I’d like you to share is tell me about the hawk hub.

Lisa Ryan Burke 15:55

Sure, so this actually is very, it’s a very special place for me. It is within the it’s, it’s really a what do we call that a gathering place for students? Some students describe it.

Jim Dunlop 16:11

So this is at Susquehanna University.

Lisa Ryan Burke 16:14

I’m sorry, at Susquehanna. And it is for students, that if you have a question, and you don’t know where to turn, you don’t know how to do something at Susquehanna. You go to The Hawk Hub, and they guide you.

Jim Dunlop 16:27

It’s kind of like asking Alexa for something.

Lisa Ryan Burke 16:31

Live in person. One student apparently has described it as what other campus has concierge service. But I did want to honor my husband, who passed away, it will be three years in April. And while he did not graduate from Susquehanna, he went somewhere else, and that’s going to be nameless. He really, really loved Susquehanna. And as he said, he wished he did go there. He was the oldest of three, three boys, the other two are graduates of Susquehanna along with my sister-in-law and my niece. So it is a big Susquehanna family. And I just thought that this would be because Clark was always the person who pulled people together. And he always wanted to make sure he was someone who was incredibly generous. And he always wanted to make sure that someone had someone to talk to, you know, he, if he went to a party, and someone was standing there alone, he always went over and talked to them. He also liked to make sure that people were very active and always doing things. So he was always arranging. And so I just thought that this would be it kind of symbolized who Clark was that he was that gatherer, and it’s a special place. And I have to admit, I do walk into the Campus Center, and I see that my name and Clark’s name up there, and I do stand there and go, Wow. Yeah, but I know that deep down, it is having an impact on students. And I think that Clark would be so happy to know that this is, you know, that this this place? The Hawk hub is there. And it’s, and he’s helping people too.

Jim Dunlop 18:28

I think that’s what’s interesting, and I have two things to react to there. The first is what’s I think a little special about Susquehanna is it’s a huge destination for first generation college students. And so you have a lot of kids that end up there whose families aren’t experienced the higher education haven’t experienced the higher education landscape, they don’t know how to navigate everything. And this is a place that tears down all, the hawk hub, this place that tears down all those boundaries, and what an incredible thing, particularly for students who, you know, are overwhelmed with financial aid and scheduling classes and figuring this out. And this bill and that bill and all the different things that come to students and, and so it’s a pretty cool idea and neat resource. The second thing, you know, thinking about Clark and the first time not the only time but the first time I met Clark was it was it was peak generosity on his part and yours, was the bus broke down that was to take a bunch of Susquehanna board members to a dinner, and it happened to be near your house. And so we scrapped the dinner, and we all went to your house and order a bunch…

Lisa Ryan Burke 19:45

I’m sorry that I’m interrupting you, but we were standing out in the parking lot and Clark was across the parking lot. And he looks at me and I knew exactly what he was saying, and you’re right, everybody came back to our house and that gave Clark the biggest joy ever to have everybody at our house. And we were dancing on the deck, remember?

Jim Dunlop 20:11

Well and I’m like, I remember coming to you at some point in the evening going Lisa I can’t believe you’re serving this kind of wine and opening this very expensive wine. And you said I can’t believe it either. But that was Clark.

Lisa Ryan Burke 20:27

That was Clark. He loved to share.

Jim Dunlop 20:29

Yeah. Well, that was pretty cool. Well, you know, Lisa, I, you have epitomized what I’m looking for in the show, which is giving our listeners practical ideas, both, you know, some big things you’ve done, but all the everyday little things that you could do to be generous. Besides Susquehanna, are there any other organizations that you’re involved in? I know, you talked about women in wellness, are there other organizations that are near and dear to you?

Lisa Ryan Burke 21:00

There are a lot that are near and dear to me, but actually, the let’s talk women in wellness is a friend of mine, who is a two-time breast cancer survivor. This was her brain burst during her second bout with cancer. And so I’m very involved in that and giving in that also. But I give to many organizations. There’s another one in Newark that I’m involved in, and it’s called GlassRoots. And it’s actually a glass blowing company, I don’t even know what to call it. But they attract students that need a place to go, that need something else, and it changes people’s lives there. And I actually have gone to several glass blowing classes, I’m not good at it. I have to say I thought it’d be much better at it than I am. And Clark was better than I was. So I was mad. But it truly it does make an impact on students in Newark, where there aren’t places for them to go after school. So I am involved in that. And then also for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, NJPAC. I do give to NJPAC because again, there’s a student program for the arts for performing arts. And I very much support that organization too. It’s a great one.

Jim Dunlop 22:38

So I have two more questions. The second last question here is this. Where would people find you on March 6 of this year?

Lisa Ryan Burke 22:50

They will find me at Susquehanna because it is the One SU Day and I am in the Cash Cab, which drives around campus. And we pull students into the cab and ask them trivia questions about the university. And of course, if they don’t know, I give them the answer. And then I that’s where my money goes. And I asked the student, I give them money. And then I ask the student where they would like their donation to go which is attached to Yeah, and they’d look at me like but I said, Yes, you get to give your money to where do you want it to go on campus? And it’s great fun.

Jim Dunlop 23:36

What are some of the things that students have picked in the past?

Lisa Ryan Burke 23:40

You know, it’s interesting, they’ll do anything from their own major to they might do the sports, if they’re involved in a sport, a fraternity, but I’m always amazed when they will give back to their own major. I think that one’s pretty interesting.

Jim Dunlop 23:58

So before we wrap up, I just let people know if they want to connect with Lisa, she is on LinkedIn. That’s a great way to find her. So she is Lisa Ryan, on LinkedIn. My final question, Lisa, here today is if you could share some advice or wisdom on a billboard, somewhere that’s going to reach a lot of people. What would your message be?

Lisa Ryan Burke 24:22

My message would be because I think it’s a very simple one. And it’s exactly what your show is. You Can’t Take it With You. Really, it is true to my heart. You know, I having lost Clark. I really did sit with my attorney. And really, we had a long, hard conversation about this. And he is someone who said if you’re going to give money away, give it while you’re still alive. But in the end, and he even said it too. He goes Yep, Can’t take it with you. That’s right. Where did you want it to go? Was a good conversation with him too.

Jim Dunlop 25:05

That’s awesome. Well, we’ve been talking with Lisa Ryan Burke, truly a thought leader and a great example setter when it comes to philanthropy. Somebody who’s wanted to be a philanthropist from at least seventh grade. Again, you can find Lisa on LinkedIn. Thank you, Lisa, for being with us today.

Lisa Ryan Burke 25:22

Thank you.

Outro 25:24

Thanks for joining us to hear stories of generosity that remind us that You Can’t Take it With You. Visit our site at canttakeitwithyou.com for more details on today’s episode, and to subscribe to future shows.

Disclosure 25:42

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Generosity as a Way of Life: Lisa Ryan Burke’s Legacy of Kindness

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