Happy Birthday to all our colleagues celebrating their special days in April! No fooling, we’re so glad to have you on our team!

4/1 – Amy Plotkin
4/1 – Jessica Rizzo
4/1 – Steve Sollmann
4/1 – Tara Reilly
4/3 – Mike Connaughton
4/3 – Noell Stohler
4/5 – Margriet Kapluck
4/6 – Austin Gammage
4/6 – Cindy Karpovs
4/6 – Conor Montijo
4/8 – Amanda Mckee
4/9 – Bill Gangluff
4/11 – Matt Rombalski
4/12 – Joe Dietz
4/12 – Katy Orenchuk
4/15 – Amy Mason
4/18 – Dean Ernzen
4/18 – Jeff Faust
4/19 – Kristina Machalleck
4/19 – Rose Michalski
4/20 – Mark Helmke
4/22 – Darlean Vance
4/22 – Rachel Parks
4/23 – Kat Gardner
4/24 – Angie Dennig
4/27 – Katie Kerby
4/27 – Marie Labosky
4/27 – Ryan Brennan
4/27 – Sheila McMahon
4/28 – Mary Frank
4/30 – Andrew Frye

Colleagues,

Please join me in congratulating Pablo Martinez and his appointment as the Director of our newly formed Sorin Society Giving team. This team is charged with the growth of Sorin Society membership and revenue, as well as the marketing, stewardship, and experiences offered to the members of Notre Dame’s largest giving society.

Pablo has been a valued member of the Annual Giving team for 10 years, leading initiatives and programs including the Phone Center, reunion giving, matching gifts, and Notre Dame Day in that timeframe. Most recently, Pablo has served as an Associate Director of Development focusing on individual asks for giving society gifts, this year alone raising $380k in incremental unrestricted dollars as well as a leadership gift for financial aid. A 2011 Notre Dame graduate, Pablo got his start as a student caller in the Phone Center.

The newly formed Sorin Society team will consist of:

Conor Montijo, who continues to oversee the operations, mass solicitation, lead generation, and stewardship experience of the Sorin Society. Conor is also the primary contact for Regional Directors on Sorin Society renewal, new, and upgrade asks; Austin Gammage and Leah Corachea as Leadership Annual Giving officers focused on driving incremental unrestricted growth through individual fundraising; and Darlean Vance, Donor Experience Coordinator. Dar provides frontline customer service via email and phone for members of all giving societies.

Please reach out to any of these fine colleagues with any questions regarding the Sorin Society.

Best,
Brian

I write today to share the bittersweet news that Kaitlin Lucero will be leaving the University of Notre Dame to pursue an opportunity at Johnson & Johnson in their Regulatory Affairs division effective April 13, 2021.

As Assistant Director of Annual Giving since 2019, Kaitlin has overseen a variety of projects spanning all areas of Annual Giving—particularly giving society and fund-level renewal solicitations. Kaitlin has been an amazing teammate for all of us and we are delighted for her as he moves on to the next chapter in her story.

God Bless and Go Irish!
Brandon Tabor

I am pleased and grateful to announce that Dr. Colleen Cross will begin serving in the role of Assistant
Director of Foundation Relations starting June 1, 2020. Many of you know Colleen, as she has been with
FR since December 2018, first as a Graduate Fellow and currently as a Postdoctoral Research Associate
after earning her Ph.D. in Peace Studies and Systematic Theology from Notre Dame in Summer 2020.
Colleen has greatly supported the work of FR through her curation of over 200 funding opportunities for
faculty on our website, key benchmarking and research projects, and the development of more than a
dozen proposals to foundations. In her new role, Colleen will have her own portfolio of foundation
proposals and will support the other FR fundraisers on larger foundation proposals, as well as with
research and special projects.

I would like to thank all of you who have met with Colleen since she started in Development years ago,
and I know that Colleen is looking forward to connecting with more of our colleagues as she begins this
new position in service to the University. Please join me in congratulating Colleen on her upcoming new
role.

-Michelle Joyce

Hello UR Team! If you are interested in joining us for this week’s UR Walks, please fill out this form. We will meet at 12pm at the Grotto tomorrow, Tuesday, March 30.  As there may be some non-pavement, trail walking, we advise that appropriate footwear be considered. Signing up also helps us to contact those who are interested just in case we need to cancel at the last minute due to inclement weather.  We look forward to seeing those in person for this fun exercise. Please keep in mind that we will be observing public health CDC guidelines. We ask all participants to properly wear a face mask at all times during the walk and social distance. Happy trails!

Please join me in congratulating Darius and Maragret Walker on the birth of their daughter, Olivia. She was born on March 24 at 11:16am. Her brother, Mason, is very excited to have picked her name, but is not sure about sharing their parents’ attention.

Cheers and love to the Walker family!

-Shelby Carroll

This year’s Triduum services (Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday) will be held in the Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center instead of the Basilica to safely accommodate as many members of the campus community as possible.

Attendance to these Triduum services will be ticketed by assigned seat only. With a limited number of seats available, all tickets will be distributed to students followed by faculty and staff, as space allows.

Now that the student ticket request timeline has passed, tickets are available to faculty and staff. As space allows, faculty and staff have the opportunity to request two tickets which will allow them to be joined by a family member from their household. Please note that the two tickets will not be adjoining seats but rather be separated by a few empty seats per safety protocol.

The faculty and staff ticket request form will be open from 8 a.m. Thursday, March 25 through 5 p.m. Monday, March 29, or until capacity has been reached. This form will be available on the Campus Ministry website.

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart will offer an adjusted Mass schedule and implement a reservation request system for Easter Sunday. The request form will open at 8 a.m. on March 22 and close at noon on March 24.

Visit campusministry.nd.edu/holyweek-easter for complete details.

Dear colleagues:

Ben and Naomi Moeller welcomed their baby boy into the world on Saturday, March 20th! Hugh Albert (aka “Hal”) was born at 10:18am weighing in at 4 lbs and 13 oz but very strong – he’s already at home settling in! And he is absolutely adorable! Baby and mommy are doing well. Ben will be back to work on Monday, April 12.

Please join me in congratulating the new parents!

Cindy

Please join Hesburgh Women of Impact for our upcoming virtual event, Hesburgh Women of Impact Presents: “You Are Not Alone: Rare and Neglected Disease Research at Notre Dame,” from 3:00-4:00 PM (EST) on Wednesday, March 24. Our speakers will include Barbara Calhoun, outreach coordinator at the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases, and Dr. Kasturi Haldar, Rev. Julius A. Nieuwland, C.S.C. Professor and Parsons-Quinn Director at the Center. The conversation will be facilitated by Notre Dame sophomore Renata Lee. This event is open to all. Please feel free to share this event with your benefactors interested in rare and neglected diseases and/or medical research at Notre Dame. You can add the Zoom session to your calendar here.

Dear Colleagues,

The Badin Guild will host a virtual Mass of Thanksgiving on Wednesday, March 17 at 4 PM ET. University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. will preside at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

The live stream of this event can be viewed here and a recording will be made available to members later this week.

Special thanks to Rudy Reyes (cantor) and Aaron Wall (reader) for their assistance with this event!

If you have any questions regarding this event, please contact Laura Walker.

It is hard to believe, but it’s time to think about the conclusion of this fiscal year. By Friday, April 30, all UR staff members must submit their year-end review to their manager in the Endeavor system. Please make note of this important deadline on your calendar. If you are a manager, please remind your teams of this deadline as well.

The completion of the performance review process is critical to employee development as well as a necessary step to calibrate performance across the division and establish merit increases for next year. Thank you for your attention to this important matter!

Our UR a Force for Good March partner, Girls on the Run Michiana, has recently told us they are in urgent need of 3-4 more assistant coaches to help run after school programming in the local area. Coaches are men and women who commit to attending Girls on the Run practice sessions twice a week for 8 weeks. The season will start in two weeks and coaches are placed at local schools. All practices are conducted outdoors, with masks and socially distanced. Girls on the Run coaches do NOT have to be runners, just willing to make a difference in the lives of girls in our community. Assistant coaches help supervise and cheer on the girls as they train for their 5Ks. All interested coaches will need to fill out a coach application and complete a background check. If you’re interested in serving as a coach, please reach out to Amy Cooper Collins at amy.coopercollier@girlsontherun.org.

Every Monday afternoon, regional directors will be able to view an updated bracket for the Regional Director March Madness challenge here on the UR site. Good luck to all the teams chasing that one shining moment!

Dear UR Family,

The eighth annual Notre Dame Day returns this April 18-19, 2021! This industry-leading day of giving is our opportunity to activate the Notre Dame Family and strengthen the areas of campus that matter most to them.

On Notre Dame Day, over 800 campus causes raise money to further the work they do and a live broadcast tells amazing stories of students, professors, alumni, and friends of Notre Dame who are making an impact all over the world.

Here are a few ways you can get involved: 

• Connect with Katie Kerby if you want to be a Development Mentor for a campus group. This is a relatively low time commitment (~1 hour total) where you can get to know Notre Dame students and help them learn how to make their case and fundraise for their cause. To learn more, watch this quick video!
• Remember: Notre Dame Day generates a lot of great ND content. Be sure that your benefactors tune in to the broadcast! As we get closer to the big day, we will share the broadcast schedule so you can share specific times of segments that will resonate with your benefactors. 
• Share this story with your network and help us get the ND family hyped for ND Day!

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out and ask! Thank you!

Katie Kerby and Brandon Tabor

Dear Colleagues,

Please join us for the 2021 Notre Dame Endowment Update Teleconference this Thursday, March 4 at 11:00 am ET. This private, invite-only event is for participants in Notre Dame’s charitable remainder trust and donor advised fund programs. The call is an opportunity to learn more about the University’s Endowment and participate in a question and answer session with Mike Donovan and the Investment Office team.

The current list of participants for this event can be found here.

To join this event, please contact Laura Walker or register via this link.

Happy Birthday to all our colleagues celebrating their special days in March! We’re so lucky to have you on our team!

3/1 – Brooke Wenzel
3/1 – Caitlin Olivier
3/1 – Kevin Nugent
3/2 – Jeff Arnold
3/2 – Juliana Newbill
3/5 – Kirt Bjork
3/14 – Mayuri Changede
3/17 – Lana Taylor
3/18 – Deena Chamberlin
3/21 – Rosie McDowell
3/22 – Jennifer Koebel
3/23 – Linda Klaybor
3/25 – Matthew Weldy
3/30 – Chau-Ly Phan