Saint Mary's College of California

Vice President for Advancement

Saint Mary's College of California seeks a highly experienced, innovative, and people-first leader who is deeply committed to the values embodied in the Lasallian, Catholic, and liberal arts traditions to serve as its next Vice President for Advancement.

The next Vice President will join Saint Mary's College at a pivotal moment. The College recently welcomed President Roger Thompson, Ed.D. in July 2024 as its 31st president. The College will look to the Vice President as a key partner to the President in advancing the Transformation 2028 strategic plan and its underlying Lasallian values, deepening the culture of philanthropy, creating a more expansive donor base, strengthening the department's organizational effectiveness, and ultimately, preparing the campus for a comprehensive campaign.

From its earliest days, Saint Mary’s has been committed to making exemplary education accessible to all. For 160 years, Saint Mary’s has emphasized service, pursued justice—social, economic, and racial—and developed respectful partnerships with underserved communities. Saint Mary's has engaged tens of thousands of students in an intellectually rigorous, transformative, and whole-person experience. Each generation of faculty and staff has encouraged a culture of collective inquiry and innovative thinking that has an impact beyond its East Bay classrooms and into the wider world. The Lasallian Catholic heritage supports a truly transformative education and is part of the essential nature of Saint Mary's College.

Today, 2,151 undergraduate, 861 graduate students, and 54,620 living alumni call themselves Gaels. Undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled in the School of Liberal Arts, School of Science, and School of Economics and Business and Administration, and the Kalmanovitz School of Education is renowned as one of the Bay Area’s top graduate schools. ​​The College is supported by an FY24-25 operating budget of $123 million and an endowment of $168.6 million (as of June 30, 2023).

Saint Mary's has proudly been classified as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) since 2015, with 27% of students identifying as Latinx. In its deep commitment to the Lasallian tradition of inclusive communities, Saint Mary’s is creating a community that goes beyond the tolerance of differences to one guided by the call to love, which is expressed in social justice, cultural competence, and engaged citizenship. Saint Mary's faculty, staff, and students celebrate diverse cultures and backgrounds. In fall 2022 and based on self-reported race/ethnicity data, 57% of traditional undergraduates identified as from diverse backgrounds, and nearly one-third of students were Pell recipients. In addition, 27% of full-time faculty and 29% of full-time staff were from diverse backgrounds.

The College's beautiful Bay Area campus is nestled in the rolling hills of Moraga, just 23 miles east of San Francisco. Saint Mary’s is ranked in the U.S. News & World Report list of the top five regional universities in the West. Through internships in Silicon Valley and beyond, and with ample hands-on research opportunities, students gain real-world experience. Saint Mary's fields 18 men's and women's NCAA-Division 1 teams, competing at the highest level as the only liberal arts college in the West Coast Conference.

The Vice President is responsible for planning, implementing, and overseeing a robust, cutting-edge program while serving in the lead role to cultivate and secure private philanthropic support for the College. In light of the increasing need for philanthropic income, the Vice President will bring vision, innovation, and initiative toward best practices in advancement and the planning of a future comprehensive campaign. The Vice President will serve as the Chief Advancement Officer for the campus and advise the President and other senior-level leaders on all advancement matters. A keen ability to think strategically at the institutional, departmental, and individual prospect level is of the utmost importance, and the Vice President will have the opportunity to leverage the support and skills of faculty and staff in service to a culture of giving. The College seeks a collaborative, forward-thinking, and goal-oriented advancement leader with a robust track record as a major/principal gift fundraiser, campaign planner with execution experience, and manager of a sophisticated fundraising operation. The Vice President will be an inspirational team builder with the capacity for embedding advancement best practices within institutional values and motivating the whole Saint Mary's community toward higher levels of investment.

WittKieffer is assisting Saint Mary's College of California in this search, which will remain open until an appointment is made.

All applications, nominations, and inquiries are invited. Applications should include, as separate documents, a CV or resume and a letter of interest addressing the themes in the leadership profile which can be accessed on the WittKieffer website (https://apptrkr.com/5548602).

Applications, nominations, and inquiries can be directed to: 

Melody Rose, Ph.D., Alejandra Gillette-Terran, and Jevon Walton

SaintMarysCollegeVPA@wittkieffer.com

Saint Mary’s reasonably expects to pay in the range of $325,000-$375,000.  

In compliance with applicable law and its own policy, Saint Mary’s College of California is committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse student and employee population and does not discriminate in its admission of students, hiring of employees, or in the provision of its employment benefits to its employees and its educational programs, activities, benefits and services to its students, including but not limited to scholarship and loan programs, on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability.