The Stewardship & Donor Relations team was delighted to welcome Nadia Casas as Program Director of Donor Recognition on July 18th. In this role, Nadia will serve as one of the project management leads on annual recognition donor events and unique celebrations for donors. She will also be responsible for the creation of both public and private donor recognition and the execution of a variety of individualized stewardship pieces.

Nadia is a graduate of California Polytechnic State University and holds a certificate from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business Summer Institute for General Management. She has spent the last seven years working as an Academic Program Administrator in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Graduate Program.

This role will allow Nadia to utilize her creative strengths, gift of organization, and passion for others to serve those in our Notre Dame family. Nadia lives in South Bend with her husband and daughter. Please join us in welcoming Nadia.

-Jessica Reasons

Dear Colleagues,

I am thrilled to announce that Alyssa Strbjak joined the Gift and Data Management Team on July 18. Alyssa will be the Program Director for Gift Management Communications. Alyssa will oversee the acknowledgment process, pledge update letters, gift preparation, and gift management communications to internal and external partners.

Alyssa joins us from Andrean High School as the Manager of Annual Giving. Prior to Andrean, Alyssa worked at Purdue University Northwest, Lewis University, and Saint Xavier University – all in various annual giving and alumni engagement positions.

Alyssa has her bachelor’s degree from Lewis University and her master’s degree from Purdue. Alyssa and her husband Jeff along with their three children Dominic (4), Braxton (4), and Sutton (2) reside in Crown Point.

Please join me in welcoming Alyssa.

-Amy Schell

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

Friends,

Please join me in prayer for the repose of the soul of John Thomas Brice, the father-in-law of Jessica Brice and father of John Brice, and for the entire Brice family as they grieve his loss.

Jessica shared that her father-in-law passed away peacefully on Friday afternoon, with his wife and one of his daughter’s at his bedside, after a nearly year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Jessica’s husband John composed a beautiful obituary for his father, which is linked here and which I encourage you to read as you lift up the Brice family in prayer.

-TJ

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.