Happy Birthday to all our colleagues celebrating their special days in June! We hope your year is filled with fun and sun!

6/3 – Cristi Ganyard
6/3 – Shayne Murphy
6/3 – Pier White
6/4 – Marcia Hittner
6/8 – Dawn McGrath
6/8 – Megan Andedo
6/8 – Maureen Daday
6/8 – Matt LaFlash
6/8 – Sharon Keane
6/9 – Michael Loungo
6/11 – Bill Ribera
6/12 – Carolyn Lax
6/13 – Mark Futa
6/16 – Rich Reynolds
6/17 – Noel Terranova
6/19 – William Mitchell
6/21 – Brigette Kinney
6/22 – Anastasia Envall-Latowski
6/22 – George Mandarakas
6/22 – Marilyn Bassett-Lance
6/29 – Mark Witucki
6/30 – Jessica Witous

Please see the below schedule of important dates about processing transactions and payments around fiscal year end.

fy21_ye_close_schedule_campus

All aboard the Notre Dame Fund Express! You may have read “Fund” as “Fun” – and both are correct! In this role you will raise $4M by wielding your excellent writing, process management, and data-analysis skills to inspire continued giving to the Notre Dame Fund. Please click this link for more details and to apply. This role closes Tuesday, June 8th at 11:59PM. Reach out to hiring manager Katie Kerby if you’d like more information beyond the job posting.

I am pleased to announce that effective July 1, 2021, James Riley will assume the new role of Senior Director of Internal Engagement, Diversity & Inclusion. In addition to his leadership for internal engagement, James’ role will be expanded to include responsibility for the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Unity efforts across the UR division.

James will lead the DEIU Task Force and the 100+ volunteers serving on various DEIU committees to continue embedding a strong culture of DEIU in UR. Many thanks to Shelby Carroll and George West, who together with James, have led the Task Force for the last 10 months with tremendous passion and huge success! They will continue to be heavily involved in our DEIU efforts.

By including the leadership of UR’s DEIU efforts in James’ role, we ensure our aspirational vision will be combined with the processes and resources to create sustained and proactive change. In this newly expanded role, James and his team will curate and develop DEIU trainings for UR staff, including inclusive management and cultural sensitivity development, collaborate closely with teams and senior leadership on new programs and communication related to diversity and inclusion, participate in building a culture that is welcoming of individuals of all races, ethnicities, religions, national origin, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, parental status, age, ability, and veteran status and frequently assess progress through focus groups and climate surveys, provide counsel on fundraising initiatives, engagement plans, and communication strategies to optimize and adhere to principles of diversity and inclusion, partner with the Talent Acquisition team and Diversity Catalysts to provide guidance to hiring managers and committees to ensure consistent approaches are followed in our hiring process, and more.

James will continue to build and manage a trusted Internal Engagement function that creates programs and processes to support the UR employee experience throughout the entire employment lifecycle, including on-boarding, professional development, talent management, internal communication and engagement opportunities.

Also effective July 1st, Kathryn Valenti will assume the additional role of leadership of talent acquisition and recruiting for UR, as the Senior Director, Resource Strategy and Administration. Tara Gilchrist and Sheri Egendoerfer’s Talent Acquisition team will merge with the Finance Administration and Strategy team. The newly formed team will help streamline processes and bring enhanced focus to the use of University Relations’ resources – people/hiring, finance, athletic and event tickets – as we move into Campaign 9.

-Heather

I am pleased to announce several important changes to our Corporate Relations and Foundation Relations teams effective July 1, 2021 which will help us elevate our fundraising for faculty research and scholarship. CR and FR will be merged into one larger team with the goal of doubling production from corporations and foundations over the course of the next campaign to $200M per year.

Michelle Joyce will transition from Senior Director of Foundation Relations to the new position of Executive Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR). In this role, Michelle will lead efforts to develop transformational proposals to advance faculty research at the $10M+ level across CFR, leverage the talent, creativity and potential of of the CFR team, and improve the operations for CFR from proposal development and coordination with Notre Dame Research and Research Sponsored Programs Accounting to stewardship and compliance. Michelle has her BS in chemistry from Notre Dame and her PhD from Duke University in analytical chemistry. Michelle has led the foundation relations team as Senior Director since 2018. Prior to joining the foundation relations as director in 2016, Michelle spent 12 years as a Special Professional Faculty in the Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility in Notre Dame’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Amanda Retartha will be promoted from Director of Foundation Relations to Senior Director of Foundation Relations. Amanda has her BS in English from Notre Dame and her PhD in English from NYU. Amanda has cultivated relationships and secured large grants from numerous foundations, including Kellogg and Porticus, and has managed some more complicated foundation relationships with the utmost finesse and professionalism. Amanda joined Special Events & Stewardship in July 2014, and transitioned to Foundation Relations in November 2016.

Josh Tullis, currently Interim Senior Director of Corporate Relations, will be promoted to the permanent position of Senior Director of Corporate Relations. Josh has his BS in chemistry and his PhD in synthetic organic chemistry, both from Notre Dame. He joined the Corporate Relations team as director in January 2017 and has effectively worked on a range of complex corporate sponsored research including the $20M commitment to establish the Notre Dame IBM Tech Ethics Lab in 2020. As Interim Senior Director, Josh has worked to lead the CR team to a top 3 year in production this fiscal year. Prior to Notre Dame Josh has 20 years of combined experience in pharmaceutical drug discovery and real estate development.

Reporting to Michelle as Executive Director of CFR will be Amanda Retartha, Josh Tullis, Ernestine Gardner, Lori Tinkey, and Cathy Windeatt. Please join me in congratulating Michelle, Amanda, and Josh as they take on these leadership roles.

Best,
Drew Buscareno

Phil Courington, Kelly Courington’s dad, passed away on Friday evening, May 21st. He was with his wife and three children at the time of his death and Kelly described it as peaceful.

We remember Phil as a Notre Dame alumnus, husband, father to our colleague Kelly and her twin brothers, and a person who was at peace when he learned earlier this year of his prognosis.

May the soul of Phil rest in eternal peace and may perpetual light shine upon him.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to Feed My Starving Children. This is a local nonprofit that Phil was very passionate about. Over the years he led trips through his church to pack food for hundreds of children around the world.

On June 12th, a visitation will begin at 1:00 PM CST and the celebration of life service will begin at 2:00 PM CST. Services will take place at Flossmoor Community Church in Flossmoor, IL.

Thank you for your support of Kelly and her family.

-Michael Loungo

I am excited to announce that Tony Castrodale has joined the Campaign team as the Program Director, Campaign Administration and Strategy beginning June 1. Tony just graduated from Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting.

Tony is no stranger to our Development team as he has served as a University Relations Intern since the fall of his Freshman year. During this time, he has served numerous teams across our division including Recruiting, Corporate Relations, Storytelling, Special Events, Athletics Advancement, Annual Giving and most recently Campaign Administration. This past year Tony has served as a Resident Assistant (RA) in Keenan Hall and as the Director of the hall’s signature event, The Keenan Revue.

Please join me in welcoming Tony full-time to the Development team.

Best,
Stu

Open until Monday May 31st: Director, Development Administration! If you’re ready for the next chapter in your career, and excited to build on the amazing work of Marilyn and her team, it’s time to step up! If you’d like to learn more before applying, please free to schedule a time with Tara Gilchrist.

If you are interested in joining us for next week’s UR Walks, please fill out this form. We will meet at 12:00pm at the Grotto on Thursday, May 27. 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!

Team,

It is with bittersweet emotions that I share the retirement of Marilyn Bassett from Notre Dame, effective July 15. While I am excited for Marilyn to begin her next chapter, I will miss her tremendous leadership as part of our team and her exceptional management of Team DC and the Development Coordinators. In her nearly ten years as a member of the UR team, Marilyn proved to be a reliable teammate – and friend – to many and will be sorely missed by all those who have worked closely with her over the years. Please join me in congratulating Marilyn on her retirement and wishing her well in her future endeavors!

Sara