UR Team,

Please note that Monday, July 18, will be Kristin Trosper’s last day on the Marketing Operations, Annual Giving team. Kristin will be taking her experience and skills to the International Rescue Committee as the strategist for their monthly giving program.

Kristin has been a part of UR for a total of 9 years, beginning in Regional Development, and has been an integral part of the Annual Giving team the past 4 years. We’re thankful for all her hard work across our departments and her diligence in serving our donors over the years. Her deep historical knowledge of all things ND fundraising will be missed.

If you were working with Kristin directly on any projects, please contact me for a plan of transition. A replacement role will be posted on jobs.nd.edu in the coming weeks. We will release further information regarding this vacancy as it becomes available.

Please join us in wishing Kristin all the best in her next venture!

-Lauren Dolzan

University Relations Family,

It is a bittersweet time for the Central Region. We are sad to see Tara Reilly leave her role as a Regional Director. Her last day with UR will be Friday, July 29th.

Tara has been and continues to be a dear friend to us all. Tara’s extraordinary talent for understanding what is important to other people and affirming who they are, will be sorely missed by her teammates and benefactors alike. We will also miss the energy she infuses into the team and her extraordinary example of how to lead a life of love, faith, and fun.

All of this said, we could not be more happy for Tara as she will continue to serve the mission of Our Lady’s University as the Director of Candidate Development and External Relations for the Inspired Leadership Initiative (ILI). For those of you who know Tara, it only seems fitting that she will be working for an area of Notre Dame with the word “Inspired” in its title and her energy and authenticity will empower her to do well in this new role.

Thank you, Tara, for your friendship, prayers, and kindness over the years. We look forward to seeing you around campus and wish you all of God’s blessings as you make the transition.

-Jason Scarlett and the Central Region Team

Dear Colleagues,

Sara Munoz’s last day with the gift management team will be July 15. Sara and her family moved to North Carolina this spring to be closer to family and to see more sunshine!

Sara has taken a position at a tech start-up, Levitate, as a Sales Development Representative for small/medium size businesses.

Sara has been with our team for more than four years. During that time Sara has evolved several of our processes, hired and trained students and seasonal team members, served hundreds of donors, and prepped thousands of gifts. We are so grateful for Sara’s time with our team. Sara’s contributions to the team will be missed!

Congratulations Sara!

-Amy Schell

Beginning today, (July 6th), the policy and process for reserving the Family and Sorin Rooms is changing. Based on feedback we have received, this change will focus on providing an improved manner of getting meetings set up and mitigating overlapping meetings. To reserve the Sorin and/or Family Room, contact Dawn Smith (dsmith34@nd,edu, 631-7164, or stopping by ESC front desk). If either room is available, Dawn will be able to reserve the room for you.

To reserve one of the rooms, the information that will be needed includes:

• Date & Time

• Meeting Length

• If a specific layout is required (for Family Room only)

Moving forward, meetings will be booked with set-up time prior to each meeting and clean-up time after meeting. The set-up and clean-up time that is set will be determined by the needs for each meeting or event. Any existing calendar reservations for the Sorin and/or Family Rooms will remain in place unless the meeting’s reservation time is adjusted. If an existing meeting reservation needs to be adjusted by either the date or time, the host/organizer will need to contact Dawn to inquire about the room availability.

As we partner with everyone to ensure that this process works for all, please note that there will be some items that each meeting host/organizer needs to handle. These include cleaning up any food or beverage, ensuring handouts are picked up, trash is thrown away, etc. An information sheet with more details can be found here. If you have any questions about this process, please feel free to reach out to Dawn, Grace, or Lana.

Happy birthday to all our UR employees celebrating their special days in July! We hope you have fun in the sun this summer!

7/3 – Katherine Lane
7/4 – Giovana Heeter
7/5 – Ashley Van Avermaete
7/8 – Brian Diss
7/8 – Brittany Jaso
7/10 – Christina Ryan
7/10 – Megan Hale
7/10 – Patrick Brennan
7/10 – Roz Palusci
7/11 – Lin Wang
7/14 – Anita Sareen
7/14 – Lori Tinkey
7/15 – Carleen Quinlan
7/16 – Gail Slevin
7/17 – Darrell Paulsen
7/17 – Patty Kokesh
7/18 – Kevin Vaughn
7/19 – Meghan Buysse
7/19 – Susan Lynch
7/20 – Jordan Wahlstrom
7/21 – Caleb Worm
7/23 – Chris Walsh
7/23 – Mike Brown
7/27 – Greg Williamson
7/29 – Ellen Aranowski
7/30 – Jill Calderone
7/31 – Mary Scott

Dear Colleagues,

Please join me in congratulating Colleen Bailey-Knapke in her promotion to Audit & Compliance Program Director on the Gift and Data Management Team. In this role, Colleen will report directly to me and will oversee the audit process – continuing to develop new audits and reconciliations for the team. Colleen has taken on the compliance responsibility which requires her to liaise directly with the Tax Director, the Controller’s office, and to be the expert for CASE guidelines, tax rules, and the Gift Management Guidelines.

Colleen has been a key member of the team for more than four years. During this time she has developed and executed our audit program, executing critical reconciliations between Development and the Controller’s office. Colleen’s expertise in understanding our data and her helpfulness have made her a go-to resource for the entire team.

Congratulations Colleen!!

Amy Schell
Sr. Director, Gift and Data Management

Dear Colleagues,

Please join me in congratulating Jessica Witous as Program Director, Advancement Records! Jess will be returning from leave on Tuesday, July 5, and will assume this leadership role on the Gift and Data Management Team. Jess will report directly to me and will oversee the daily operations of the Advancement Records team consisting of Julie Seniff and Melissa Medina. The Advancement Records team is responsible for gift processing and biographical data updates, including being the subject matter experts in matching gifts, grants processing, freshman parent data, employment data and other critical priorities.

Jessica has served on the Gift and Data Management Team for more than 5 years and prior to that was a regional development coordinator. Jess is also the Gift and Data Management co-lead for asceND.

Congratulations Jess!

-Amy Schell

Please join me in congratulating Mary Jane Añón on her promotion to Senior Director of the Cavanaugh Council and President’s Circle Program. As Senior Director, Mary Jane will play a critical leadership role as we set our sights on the goal of raising $100M in unrestricted giving per year over the next three to five years. Mary Jane’s commitment to teamwork and collaboration, and her ability to deliver an unparalleled donor experience are tremendous gifts to our development team and Notre Dame.

I am also excited to announce that Jennifer Odell will assume the new position of Program Director for The Friends of Ted and Ned leadership annual giving program. In collaboration with the annual giving team and regional development, Jen will develop the vision, strategy and member experience to drive our growth at the $100,000 unrestricted giving level. Jen will continue to report to Mary Jane and serve as a member of the Cavanaugh Council and President’s Circle team.

Both of these promotions are effective July 1, 2022. Congratulations again to Mary Jane and Jen!

-Drew Buscareno

Patty Kokesh has decided to step down from her role as the Director of Data and Strategic Analytics effective July 1. She will remain on the team in an individual contributor role as a Strategic Analytics Specialist, supporting various analytics projects.

I am pleased to announce that Wayne Harpenau will be taking over the Director of Data and Strategic Analytics, reporting to me effective July 1. In this role, he will lead our talented and growing team who serve as critical partners to transform data to information and deliver reports and dashboards to allow for faster and improved decisions. Patty, Mayuri Changede, Matt LaFlash, Ling Sun, and Sheila McMahon will all report to Wayne.

Wayne joined Notre Dame in September 2021 and has been serving as a Systems Integrations Specialist working on the asceND project. Before joining Notre Dame, he was a Business Intelligence Professional at Western Michigan University in Institutional Research. Prior to his time at Western Michigan, he served as a Business Intelligence Manager and IT Applications Manager at Sony. Wayne received his Bachelor of Science from Iowa State University and earned a Masters Certificate in Business Intelligence from Villanova University. He brings a wealth of technical skills and knowledge in the data analytics space and we are excited to have him in this new role.

Please join me in congratulating Wayne on his promotion to Director of Data and Strategic Analytics!

-Carleen Quinlan

Please note that the Billy Joel tickets available earlier today have all been distributed. Thank you.