Please join me in wishing Deana Northern farewell and good luck as she leaves the University at the end of this month to take on a new opportunity in Dayton, OH.  Deana’s last official working day will be Friday, 9/02.

In 2013, she started her career at Notre Dame under the fractional support group serving a variety of campus partners, including ACE, the Graduate School, Notre Dame Press, and ASSA. In 2015 she moved to an embedded role for Student Affairs and RecSports.  During that time, she was able to focus on more projects such as the implementation of Irish1Card, the RecSports move to Duncan Student Center along with leading the project to move the RecSports Fusion server to an AWS cloud solution. She also earned a Lean Sigma Six Green Belt for a project to revamp RecSports’ faculty access processes and procedures.  Currently, she is involved in various OIT groups and was chosen to be part of the MOR All Leads Program.

Deana joined the NDAA Team in early 2020 and brought a focus on improving our internal IT processes, including the implementation of Service Now for our myND Support Team, organizing and tracking our equipment purchases, and always ensuring that our IT infrastructure runs seamlessly whether handling payments at Football Fridays, automating the NDAA Board election, or processing Reunion check-in.  And most importantly, Deana built a knowledge base allowing us to repeat these successes in the future.

Deana’s dedication to the NDAA, her past campus partners, OIT, and University as a whole is outstanding, and she will definitely be missed.  Please join me in thanking Deana for her 10 years of dedication to the University and wishing her well in her future endeavors.

It is with mixed emotions that I share the news of the departure of Karen Deak. Her last day in the office will be August 31st.

Karen has served as the AAD for Research, the Graduate School, and the IDEA Center since spring of 2019. She has been a valued colleague, a champion for her causes, and a great teammate. We will miss her insight and humor.

Karen has accepted a position at Cooley, LLP as their IP Lead Patent Formalities Specialist. In this position, she’ll use her background as a patent agent to lead a growing team which is responsible for all of the supporting documentation for clients’ patent applications.

Please join me in saying farewell to Karen and congratulating her on this new opportunity. She and John (and Ziggi!) will continue to reside in Dunne Hall and be here on ND’s campus.

Friends and Colleagues,

It is with mixed emotions that I announce Tara Gilchrist has accepted a new position within Human Resources here at Notre Dame. Tara has served University Relations over the past several years dedicating her time to finding and hiring the best talent. Because of her efforts, the division has grown by leaps and bounds and we are extremely grateful for her time spent in Development.

Tara will transition to her new role on August 29th but continue to keep our recruiting pipeline open until we are able to find her replacement. You may reach out directly to Adria Logan for any questions in the interim.

Please join me in congratulating Tara on her new role.

Sincerely,
Adria

Friends and colleagues,

Jesse Meyer will be leaving Notre Dame to accept the role of Chief Development Officer for St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, where he will lead the school’s fundraising efforts.

Jesse has served Notre Dame for nearly 6 years, first as Regional Director in the West Region, as Senior Director in Illinois and, most recently, as Regional Director on the New York Metro team. His passion for the work was demonstrated through the relationships he built with his benefactors and in the contributions he made to the team, including playing a key role in the growth of BATPA and other important initiatives.

Jesse’s last day will be Tuesday, September 6. Please join me in congratulating him on his new opportunity.

All the best,
Ryan

The Prospect Research and Strategy is thrilled that Jonathan Retartha has joined us as the Director of Prospect Development and Strategy, leading the team of Prospect Management Consultants (Cindy Karpovs, Katie O’Friel, Kevin McMannis, Meghan Walsh, and Brooke Wenzel). Once he is up to speed, he will also transition to directly supporting the Athletics region and the UR Executives with their portfolios.

Jonathan Retartha returns to the Development team after four years as Director of Housing in Residential Life. Jonathan started his Notre Dame career in Development as Assistant Director and then Donor Experience Manager on the Annual Giving team, after three years at Fox Corporation.

As Director of Housing, Jonathan’s team managed all assignments, student services, and logistics across the University’s 32 residence halls, including the emergency shutdown and staged reopening of the halls in 2020. Jonathan also managed the University’s residential master plan, extending the occupancy strategic roadmap and organizing full-year renovations in Morrissey, Dillon, Sorin, and Alumni halls, while acting on the design team for Baumer, Johnson Family, and the new men’s residence hall under construction on east quad.

He has earned a B.A. and M.B.A. from Notre Dame, as well as an M.A. from NYU’s Skirball Center for New Media. Please join us in welcoming Jonathan back to University Relations!

It is with excitement for our team and the University to announce that Katy Orenchuk will serve in the role of Academic Advancement Senior Director, effective July 25th. Katy joined University Relations in the spring of 2019 in the newly created role of AAD for Arts and Architecture. In this role she has cultivated a wide range of relationships, worked effectively to secure support for key projects, and instituted new initiatives to support the arts on campus, including the recently created Notre Dame Arts Council. She has since added the Libraries to her portfolio.

Prior to her role at Notre Dame, Katy spent 13 years as a fundraiser in Washington DC and Chicago. She has her BA in history and political science from the University of Notre Dame, and obtained her MA in Arts Administration from the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University in 2006. She became certified as a Fund Raising Executive in 2018.

We are grateful that Katy will bring her unwavering commitment to the mission of our Lady’s University and her deep knowledge of and experience with fundraising to this leadership role.

Katy will continue to be located at Eddy St. and will continue to be the first point of contact for the arts and architecture until she hires her successor.

Please join me in congratulating Katy.

Best,

Michelle

Please join me in congratulating Sean Cuneo on his new role as the Senior Digital Campaign Specialist on the Marketing Operations team in Annual Giving. We are thrilled for Sean to step into this role and lead our team of two Content Marketing Specialists.

Sean joined the Development team in January 2022 as a Content Marketing Specialist and has excelled in this role, leading reporting and testing, and digging into email solutions. Prior to his position with Annual Giving, he was the Director of Marketing at Mercyhurst University. In Sean’s first week, he has been charged with creating and managing our Giving Society events registration platform and the exploration of journeys and automation for our email campaigns. We’re excited for all Sean will do with and for our team.

Please join me in congratulating Sean on his promotion!

Lauren Dolzan

Dear everyone,

Please join me in congratulating Indi Jackson on her promotion to Regional Director of Development as the newest member of the Southern Region covering South Florida. We are thrilled for Indi to officially join the Southern Region as an RD after being our AGSM leadership giving team liaison for the past year.

Indi joined the Development team in May 2021 as an Associate Director of Leadership Annual Giving and has excelled in this role, surpassing her FY22 goal by 14% and generating over $3M in unrestricted revenue. Prior to her position with Annual Giving, Indi was an Associate Producer at Fighting Irish Media, helping produce award winning content across 26 sports, including content aired on NBC. She also showcased her passion for storytelling in hosting the “Brave Voices” podcast, where she interviewed other Black Notre Dame Student Athletes about race in their life, aiming to ease the tension around the discussion of race.

Indi graduated from Notre Dame in 2017 with a BA in Film, Television and Theater and a minor in Computer Digital Technologies. She is also a Track and Field Monogram winner and served as a two time captain for the team.

I’m confident that Indi’s competitive spirit, desire to help others and passion for storytelling will lead her to continued success as a Regional Director of Development. Please join me in congratulating Indi on her promotion and welcoming her to the Southern Region!

Best,
Anne

Dear UR team,

On Tuesday, July 5, we are welcoming two new members to the NDAA family, Allie Griffith and Eleanor Hanson.

Eleanor Hanson SMC ’22 will be joining the Alumni Association as the Coordinator of the Marketing & Communications department. Eleanor graduated in May from St. Mary’s with a degree in Communications and a concentration in Public Relations and Advertising while serving as Student Body President. Her mother is a 1994 graduate of St. Mary’s, and her father is a 1995 graduate of Notre Dame. The Hanson family has lived in Scottsdale, Arizona, rural Georgia, and Toronto, Canada and her hobbies include riding horses, reading, and spending time outdoors. In her new role, Eleanor will coordinate all MarCom efforts, including the areas of budgets, finance, project management, affinity programs, social media, young alumni, storytelling, and content creation.

Please join me in welcoming Eleanor to the NDAA.

Best,

Digger