Northwestern University Alumni

Roberta “Bertie” Buffett Elliott is a visionary philanthropist and volunteer whose charitable giving and personal involvement bring people together and help expand our understanding of each other and the world in which we live.

Elliott is a longtime supporter of international studies at Northwestern. After serving as co-chair of her 50th Reunion gift committee in 2004, she made a gift for a visiting professor program to bring internationally recognized professors to teach and study at the University in the fields of international and comparative studies. In 2005, that program was expanded into the Roberta Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies to support research, speakers, seminars, and travel awards. A decade later, Elliott’s historic $101 million gift endowed the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, which is transforming global learning and research at Northwestern.

For more than 60 years, Elliott has been involved as a board member for many community organizations on the Monterey Peninsula in California, including the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Carmel Bach Festival, as well as Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. In 2017, she made the largest gift ever awarded in Monterey County to support the development of an innovative approach to child and adolescent mental health, including a new facility that provides inpatient and outpatient care and early intervention programs. A former president of the Junior League of Monterey County and Community Foundation of Monterey County, Elliott also has supported many other organizations dedicated to the arts, education, and health.

Elliott earned a bachelor’s degree in history and Phi Beta Kappa honors from Northwestern. She has three living children: Susan Lansbury, Cynthia Livermore, and Carolyn Akcan, and survives another daughter, Sally Snorf. Four of her 11 grandchildren graduated from the University, and two more are current students.