Dear Faculty and Staff:

I write to share that Jeff Gillooly, Vice President for Advancement, is stepping down from his position on June 30, 2022. Jonathan Kappel ’81, Executive Director of Principal Gifts, will be serving as interim vice president until a successor is named.

As you know, Jeff oversees all fundraising, and alumni, families and friends relations efforts at Clark. Since he joined the University in 2015, Jeff has made a significant impact through both transforming the Advancement division and achieving historic levels of fundraising.

Through Campaign Clark, Jeff led the most ambitious fundraising initiative ever at the University. Publicly launched in 2015 with a goal of $125 million, Campaign Clark concluded in 2020 with $156 million raised from more than 16,600 donors, a record for Clark University. Funds from the campaign have supported student scholarships, endowed professorships, innovative research and creative endeavors, improved facilities and academic programs, and other gifts to the university’s endowment.

Critical to this success is a reinvigorated Advancement team which Jeff reorganized to better support both fundraising and stakeholder engagement, including the creation of stewardship and donor relations departments. He also has driven the growth of a robust volunteer network, built around six Leadership Councils located across the country, and created new ways for Clark’s more than 35,000 alumni to engage with the University – including through a revamped Alumni Council, establishment of the Black Alumni and LGBTQ+ Alumni Councils, and launch of the “Graduates of the Last Decade” program to reach and energize young alumni.

I am grateful for Jeff’s partnership and counsel over the past two years. He has moved our University forward in several important ways, most obviously through the highly successful fundraising efforts he has led, but also in the ways that he has modernized our Advancement organization and practices. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors. Jeff has shared with me that he is enthusiastic to remain in higher education. We will be conducting a national search to identify a successor.

Sincerely,

David Fithian ’87
President