Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is with bittersweet emotion that I share with you the news that Jim Small is retiring from Notre Dame, effective June 30, 2023.

Jim has served as a senior leader of our team for over eleven years, transforming development communications into inspiring stories for Notre Dame alumni, parents and friends. We will miss Jim’s passion, innovation, commitment to excellence and devotion to Notre Dame and our mission.

Jim is leaving Notre Dame and our University Relations team in a much better and stronger place. Jim pioneered and executed many of our biggest and most creative endeavors over the past decade, including Notre Dame Day, the Notre Dame Trail, and Sorin: A Notre Dame Story. Under Jim’s leadership, Storytelling developed custom donor proposals to convey our priorities, translating into billions donated to the University. He built videography, design and social media experiences previously unconceived; enhanced brand messaging; and taught us the importance of “Think, Feel, Do” through storytelling. While the Annual Giving team continues to break records in unrestricted and giving society gifts and donor counts year after year, Jim pushed colleagues to think differently, not to look back, but rather, to always look ahead with excitement. Similarly, Jim and Susan are now doing just that with retirement on the horizon, and Jim asked me to share the attached message with you.

Later this week, the position of Associate Vice President for Development will be posted. In the meantime, please take a moment to read Jim’s heartfelt message and join me in wishing Jim, Susan, and the entire Small family every happiness on their next adventure.

Best, Lou

Colleagues,

Often times it is difficult to see someone leave the University of Notre Dame, and this is one of those times. After 18 years of service, Lynn Hubert is leaving Our Lady’s University to pursue a new opportunity with Ave Maria University as the Vice President and Advisor to the President. She will help Ave Maria build out their development team and also manage a principal gift portfolio.

While it is difficult to see Lynn go, it is with a heart of gratitude that we wish her, Dan, and the entire family well in their new pursuit. The Hubert family has been an immense blessing to Our Lady’s University as well as to the St. Pius X parish family. We are grateful to Lynn for taking such fantastic care of her benefactors, deeply and authentically living her Catholic faith, and for simply being a great friend to us all. Lynn, we wish you all of God’s blessings and tremendous success. Lynn’s last day in the office will be Wednesday, May 24th.

Jason Scarlett
Senior Director

If you wish to leave a message for Lynn, you can do so here: https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/1tm6JbUa

We are happy to share some exciting news for Caitlyn Clinton!

Starting June 1st, Caitlyn will transition from overseeing ND Listens and Student Philanthropy to Associate Director, Leadership Annual Giving.

Over the last 20 months, Caitlyn has grown ND Listens and forged many valuable campus relationships. Not only that, but her passion for Notre Dame shines every day. She’s certainly leaving some big shoes to fill.

Caitlyn has many talents and we know she will soar in this new role. Please join us in a heartfelt congratulations, Caitlyn!

We are actively hiring for the Assistant Director, Annual Giving Programs (ND Listens) role. In the interim, please direct ND Listens student requests to Meredith Sharwarko (msharwar@nd.edu).

Meredith Sharwarko

Dear Colleagues,

The third spring renewal mailing (renew #3) is dropping in mailboxes starting Friday, May 19 to all our unrestricted and giving society benefactors. As a reminder, this mailing is sent to all assigned and unassigned benefactors whose annual giving is less than $25,000, asking them to renew their previous calendar year gift by their respective fund owner. This mailing is being sent to over 5,200 households and will be followed by email reminders in the weeks to come. If you have any questions regarding our renewal strategy, please reach out to the appropriate fund (Sorin, Rockne, Law, etc.) owner on the annual giving team and they can assist.

Thanks!
Annual Giving Team

Dear Colleagues,

It is my pleasure to announce that Lynette Shunka joined the Information & Technology Services team on May 8. Lynette will be a Salesforce CRM Administrator for asceND.

We are excited to see the impact Lynette will have on our team. Her experience,
skillset, and commitment to the mission of Our Lady’s University will help advance our
team’s work and culture.

Lynette has her bachelor’s degree from Lamar University, and is a Certified Salesforce Administrator. She and her husband, Kyle reside in the Houston TX area.

Please join me in offering a warm welcome to Lynette as she joins the University Relations family.

– Carleen

Dear Colleagues,

Please join me in congratulating Natalie Sargent as she begins a new role in the Provost’s Office as the Director of Faculty Awards & Recognition, effective June 1.

Enhancing Notre Dame’s pipeline of national recognition and awards for faculty is an area of strategic importance for the University, and Natalie will be working with the provost, the Provost’s Office team and senior leaders across the academy to lead strategy and facilitate collaboration.

During her tenure as Academic Advancement Director, and in collaboration with many of you, over $106M has been raised to date for the Mendoza College of Business including for the Business Honors Program and the Meyer Business on the Frontlines Program.

On behalf of the AAD team, we wish Natalie well and will commence the search for our next Academic Advancement Director for Mendoza as soon as possible. If you or anyone in your network would be interested in this role, please reach out to me at any time.

Thanks!

KO

Friends,

I am both proud and grateful to announce that Mary Bueno will be retiring from her role as Development Associate, Advancement Services effective June 30, 2023 after 10 loyal years of service to Notre Dame.

Mary joined the Development team in 2013 after a career in administrative support positions at both Attco Machine Products and Honeywell International. Mary quickly became a beloved member of the Annual Giving team, providing assistance with nearly every annual giving effort, from Notre Dame Day to donor experience support for Giving Society members. Above all, she served as a trusted advocate, cheerleader, counselor, and friend to so many of us who have been blessed to work with her. Whether with a high five, a hug, or simply a smile, Mary has the rare ability to make every day better just because you have the chance to work with her.

I personally am so grateful to Mary for joining the Advancement Services team this past year, bringing with her the same can-do and “how can I help” approach to a new role and team. Mary will be incredibly missed, but we are thrilled that she and her husband, Manny, will be jumping into this exciting new phase of life!

Please join me in thanking Mary for all she has done for Notre Dame and our team. We will miss you, Mary!

Brian

Hello UR Team! If you are interested in joining us for our next UR Walks, please fill out this form. Brian Diss will be leading the walk from Grace Hall. 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 catching up with you while getting in our steps. Happy trails!

Colleagues,

It is with excitement for our longstanding colleague Cheryl Schlimpert that we share news about her new endeavor. Beginning June 1st, Cheryl will join the Accounting and Financial Services team in the Controller’s Office, assuming the new role of Endowed Programs Manager. In this role, Cheryl will be developing processes to increase the utilization of endowed resources, enhance communication among constituent departments, and improve the monitoring of unique gift arrangements and related donor restrictions.

Cheryl is a proven solutions leader and has worked extensively with our annual endowment reporting process for the past several years, providing project and data management to the University Stewardship Initiatives team. In addition, Cheryl is the technical force behind the Student Thank You Note project which produces more than 8,000 student letters annually. Cheryl has also automated a significant number of processes for the broader Stewardship team, including the annual Stewardship & Dedications budget.

Cheryl’s mindset toward continuous process improvement and automation has helped the Stewardship & Donor Relations team immensely in recent years. She will be missed for both her technical expertise and her stewardship heart. Gratefully, Cheryl isn’t going far, and supporting the University’s efforts toward more consistent spending of endowed funds will serve our generous benefactors well. We look forward to working closely with Cheryl in this new capacity. Please join us in offering all good wishes to Cheryl as she embarks on this new and exciting opportunity!

We will be posting for Cheryl’s replacement as Project and Data Assistant Manager in the coming days. Please contact Cristi Ganyard if you have questions or would like to discuss this role.

Katherine Lane and Cristi Ganyard

UR Friends and Colleagues,

I write to share the news that Amy Walter will be leaving her role as Development Coordinator to pursue an opportunity in ND Athletics as the Building Services Coordinator. Her last day will be Friday, May 5th. We are grateful for her many contributions to our DC team and wish her much success as she embarks on this new role.

Please join me in extending best wishes to Amy as she transitions to her new campus position.

All the best,

Angie Dennig and the DC team