I am very excited to announce that Courtney Mattison will join the Illinois Team as a Regional Director on October 11.

Courtney brings extensive experience in fundraising, with a focus on donor relations. Courtney served as Senior Manager for Development and Events for Paqui and Coach Brian Kelly’s charitable foundation Kelly Cares, as well as Director of Marketing for the College Football Hall of Fame. Most recently, she served as the Director of Annual Giving and Constituent Relations for Saint Joseph High School. Her experience with these and other institutions of Catholic education have prepared her for Notre Dame and make her eager and grateful to serve the mission of Our Lady’s University.

Courtney, originally from the Washington, D.C. area, began her career on Capitol Hill after graduating from Stephens College with a B.S. in American Public Policy. She and her husband Bill, a professor in the Department of Theology and Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) at Notre Dame, have two boys, Billy and Jack.

In Notre Dame,

Jerry Barca

I am excited to announce that Leah Corachea has joined the Southwest team as regional director, working with benefactors in the Los Angeles area.

As many of you know, Leah has been a part of the ND development family for 7 years. She most recently served as the Associate Director, Leadership Annual Giving where she worked to raise incremental annual unrestricted funds for our giving societies program and in FY21, Leah raised $440,000 in incremental unrestricted funds for the University. Before that role, she ran our ND Listens and Parents programs for 3 years where she set records and reinvented our student-caller program.

Leah, a double Domer, received her BA in Sociology in 2014 and her Master in Non-profit Administration in 2020. While an undergrad student, she was on the Women’s Rowing team, winning two Big East championships in 2011 and 2012.

Leah has been “a part” of the SouthBEST team, acting as our team’s liaison to the Annual Giving team for the past year. I am thankful to have her officially on the team and look forward to seeing her succeed in this role. Please join me in congratulating Leah!

Best, Shelby

The Information Technology and Services team is excited to announce two new members.

Sara Aycock joined the data integration team as Systems Integration Professional on September 20th. She will start with a focus on the Ascend project with gift integration. Sara is a 2011 Saint Mary’s graduate with a Bachelor of Business Administration, Management Information Systems.

Sara is joining us from the OIT Employee/Finance team, having been with Notre Dame for 10 years. She already has experience with the tools our group uses and all of us on the IT&S team are excited she has chosen to join us.

Wayne Harpenau joined the data integration team as Systems Integration Professional on September 27th. Wayne will also start with a focus on the Ascend project helping us migrate our data from CrmND to Ascend.

Wayne graduated from Iowa State University and has continued his education in Business Intelligence with Villanova University.

Wayne joins us from Trinity Health Catholic Hospitals. Previous to that, he worked for Western Michigan University and Sony, doing all forms of data integration work bringing our team many years of experience. We are grateful Wayne will be sharing his extensive experience with our team and looking forward to how that will help us all grow.

Thank you for welcoming Sara and Wayne and I ask that you help support them to have a fulfilling and successful time with us in University Relations.

Andrew Yocum

I am pleased to announce that Kilian Vidourek has joined the Storytelling & Engagement Team as Visual Storyteller, effective Sept. 13.

Kilian is from Tyrone, Georgia, a small town south of Atlanta. He studied French horn performance and Film production at Notre Dame where he played in almost any musical group he could. A proud member of the Marching Band, he was also a member of the Irish Guard. Throughout his time at Notre Dame he had several unimaginable opportunities like traveling to Portland Oregon to film a documentary, learning to be an assistant brewer for a new brewery, and interning in Los Angeles. Some fun facts about him include his alter-ego Dogsnake which you can sometimes find DJing around South Bend and his love of running.

Please join me in welcoming Kilian to our UR Team!

Jim Gosz

Dear UR,

It is our absolute pleasure to share with you the promotion of Tashana Kenny to the role of Assistant Manager (AM) on the Development Coordinator (DC) Team. Tashana will be transitioning on September 15, 2021 to work with the management team, reporting to Lori Tinkey. In the new position, Tashana will continue to support field fundraisers, add responsibilities for managing DCs, and helping to lead the DC Team.

Tashana was instrumental in the success of the DC cross-training pilot program last year and serves as Co-Lead for the ongoing initiative. She continues to have a strong impact on our DEIU efforts through the Communications and Impact committee of DEIU. Prior to her work with the University, Tashana was an Enterprise Specialist in Product Sales and Support with Comcast for 16 years. Tashana received her Masters degree from the University of Phoenix in 2019, and her Bachelors degree from Ball State University in 1996.

Please reach out to Tashana to congratulate her on this achievement.

Sincerely,

Deena and Lori

Dear UR,

It is our distinct pleasure to announce the promotion of Emma Capannari to the role of Senior Regional Development Coordinator(SRDC) reporting to Lori Tinkey, effective September 20, 2021. In her new role, Emma will continue to provide support to her current fundraisers for the near term, adding Senior Regional Directors (SRDs) to her portfolio as opportunities present, and work with the management team on special projects. An Indiana University graduate, Emma joined ND Development in 2018 and assumed the responsibility of managing the Chicago Development office, as well as providing support to four fundraisers. Emma was called to serve on the Covid-19 response unit as well as the AsceND project last year. Please join us in congratulating Emma.

If you have any questions about Emma’s new responsibilities, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Angie and Lori

We are thrilled to announce two promotions and a new addition to the Stewardship & Donor Relations team.

Megan DePrimio-Faust has been promoted to a Program Director in Donor Recognition. Megan, who has been on the team for five years, has grown significantly in her role. She has been instrumental in leading the recognition audit throughout campus and has made incredible recognition contributions for key donors, both public and personal. In addition, Cheryl Schlimpert has been promoted to Project Manager for Stewardship & Donor Relations. In this role, Cheryl will continue to support the entire team serving as the project manager for our most complex projects, including endowment reports, financial aid student recipient thank you notes, and the dedication budget just to name a few. Please join me in congratulating both Megan and Cheryl!

In addition, I am excited to announce that the responsibility of stewarding members of the Badin Guild is moving from Annual Giving to the Stewardship & Donor Relations team. The responsibility of Badin Marketing will remain in Annual Giving and a search will be underway soon to fill this open position. With this change, we are excited to welcome Laura Walker, Associate Director of the Badin Guild, to the stewardship team. Laura brings with her seven years of Development experience as a member of the Annual Giving team where she oversaw the stewardship of the Badin Guild, the marketing of planned giving vehicles, and since 2017, the marketing of our matching gift program.

As we prepare for the next campaign, this change will allow us to strategically determine how best to steward Badin Guild members, both programmatically as well as individually at the top of the pyramid ($10+). The move to the Stewardship & Donor Relations will allow Laura to leverage her knowledge of the Badin Guild and couple it with the expertise and support of the entire team. Laura will certainly continue to partner with her colleagues in Annual Giving, especially with Badin communications and stewardship events. She will also serve as the stewardship liaison to the Office of Gift Planning.

Please note that Laura will continue to handle Badin marketing until a new colleague is hired in this role reporting to Jim Small.

Dear UR,

With appreciation for her selfless dedication to Notre Dame fundraising, we wish Marcia Hittner all the best for her upcoming retirement on September 30. Marcia has been an invaluable member of our geographically extended family, serving as Development Coordinator from the New York City office and her delightful Queens apartment for 13 years. We are grateful to Marcia for her efforts in supporting our fundraisers and our special events team, in particular for her work on the highly successful Wall Street dinners. Her attention to detail and organizational skills have been integral to the continued success of our New York presence. During the pandemic lockdown, many of us knew Marcia as a faithful, insightful contributor to our UR DEIU Zoom conversations. Thank you, Marcia.

Please join us in congratulating Marcia on her next chapter!

The DC Team has a number of openings for the Development Coordinator position; if you, or someone you know, are interested in knowing more, please contact me at ltinkey@nd.edu.

~Lori and Deena

 

Dear Friends,

I wanted to share two quick celebratory notes regarding Conor Montijo, albeit one is much more a cause for celebration for us in UR than the other!

Firstly, I want to congratulate Conor and Molly (Reidy), who recently celebrated one month since their marriage! They were married by Molly’s brother in the Basilica with their closest family and friends and we could not be happier for the newlyweds. Wishing them a lifetime of happiness!

Secondly, I write to share that Conor will join ND Innovates as Program Director, effective September 13, with his last day in Development being September 10th. In his new capacity, Conor will serve as the Assessment lead, empowering partners from cross-functional teams to assess problems, design solutions, and implement those solutions at scale across the University in pursuit of cost savings that can be directed to financial aid. Please join me in wishing Conor all the best on this next chapter of his career. His genuine candor, professionalism and embodiment of the Notre Dame Mission will be missed!

We will be looking to hire Conor’s replacement for the Associate Director, Sorin Society role within the next couple of weeks. Please let me know directly if you have any questions!

In Notre Dame,
Pablo

It is my pleasure to welcome Isabel Dance to the Development Coordinator team. Isabel started with us on August 23rd.

Isabel most recently worked as a recruiter for Aerotek in South Bend, Indiana. She also worked part-time at the Loft and is very into fashion. Before the pandemic, she volunteered at the Saint Mary’s Convent as Volunteer Leader for sisters affected with dementia. She planned many activities there including several fashion shows!

Isabel has a Bachelor of Science degree in Retail Management with a minor in Communications from Purdue University. She can’t wait for the ND v. Purdue game in a few weeks!

Isabel and her husband, Austin, who also works for the University at the Warren Golf Course, reside in South Bend.

Please join me in welcoming Isabel!

Anita Sareen