A DYNAMIC DUO WHO HAVE HELPED SHAPE ATLANTA’S PHILANTHROPIC SCENE
It all started with a rather expensive cab ride for Ernest Greer. He began college as a work-study student at Harvard University, where he cleaned other students’ bathrooms as part of his financial aid package. His first week, he caught wind of a party at nearby Wellesley College and decided to attend with friends. “They said the party was around the corner. The cab ended up costing us $74. That was a lot of money in the ’80s. At that point, my parents were trying to give me a $15 a week allowance.”
The party was in his now-wife’s freshman dorm. When Patrice, who wasn’t even actively attending the party, came downstairs to get a drink, they began talking. “We were together within about two weeks,” Ernest says.
That expensive yet fated beginning has led to a 36-year marriage that has seen both of their stars rise. The two lived in Ernest’s hometown of St. Louis before both completed graduate programs at Northwestern University; Ernest went to the Pritzker School of Law, and Patrice was at the Kellogg School of Management. They went on to have two daughters, Kendall and Lauryn, who are now in their 30s.
Eventually, they arrived in Patrice’s native Atlanta after Ernest clerked for a judge in Detroit. To reintroduce herself to her hometown, Patrice, a graduate of Trinity School, the first Atlanta independent school to integrate, and The Westminster Schools, knew where to start: the Junior League of Atlanta. “I knew it would be a great place for me to meet people and learn about the city I had been away from for a while,” she says.
From there, the two stair-stepped their philanthropy efforts, snowballing into a long list of causes and institutions that have benefited from their time and talent as honorees, board members, board presidents and event chairs. The non-exhaustive list of their efforts includes the Alliance Theatre, Zoo Atlanta, Families First, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, The Grady Foundation, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta Ballet, Fulton County Arts Council and the Atlanta History Center, where the two were the 2024 Swan House Ball honorees.
For the past 25 years, Ernest has been at Greenberg Traurig where he’s currently co-president, and Patrice worked in commercial real estate and business for places including Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), Turner Broadcasting and The Coca-Cola Company before starting the airport concessions firm Creative Concourse Concepts.
While focused on their work, Ernest says paying back communities is a requirement. “We both benefited from the focus on community and the notion that community was key to who we were, whether it was organizations, events or family,” he says. “It’s a natural evolution of who we are to pay it forward.”
How they choose what to support comes down to the causes and the people involved. Sometimes they get involved because it’s a concern they care deeply about, such as education, arts and health. “We think those are the three components to any child’s existence, any community’s existence, and they elevate people,” Ernest says. Sometimes, it’s because of their relationships and friends who ask them to join a cause. “We go on their journey as well,” he says.
For now, the two are enjoying their young grandchild, Elise, and traveling, with Patrice pulling back on philanthropic commitments to devote more time to family. She’s currently on the board for the Grady Foundation, and Ernest is on the board of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. They’re both still deeply connected to the Atlanta History Center, thanks to their relationship with president and CEO Sheffield Hale. “The diversity of the exhibits and how they include all children of Atlanta is very important to us,” Patrice says.
They recently had a special moment together. Their daughter, Lauryn, completed her JD-MBA at Northwestern, becoming the embodiment of her parents’ two degrees from the institution. The two were allowed to cloak her at the law school graduation. “We’ve gotten really close to that institution,” Ernest says.
They plan to continue balancing family life with engaging where they can be most purposeful and meaningful. But it’s time to pass the baton, says Patrice, who is encouraging younger friends to step up. “We don’t have to be the co-chairs of everything.”
Ernest agrees. “Part of passing the baton is getting out of the way,” he says. “We feel honored and blessed to have been able to have an impact on our community through philanthropy.”
PHOTO: Erik Meadows
