Search for Director of Alumni and Donor Relations

Dear Alumni/ae,

Margaret Felton Viens ’77 has stepped down after 13 years as director of alumni and donor relations at Colby. Margaret built a strong alumni relations program that has been a role model for our peers.

I am writing to ask for your help in identifying the next leader of this important effort at Colby. Colby’s 22,000 alumni around the world are extremely important to the College. They assist us in identifying and interviewing prospective students for admission, counsel and mentor students in their career searches, assist in fund raising, and are often guest lecturers in courses here on Mayflower Hill. In addition to their contributions on the Alumni Council and C Club, many alumni serve the College as overseers and, most importantly, guide Colby as members of the College’s Board of Trustees.

Our alumni relations program seeks to keep alumni informed about the College and to strengthen connections with one another. The next leader of this effort will need to be a strategic thinker with strong team-building skills who has the capacity to understand the needs of Colby’s diverse alumni community and who can implement programming to enhance alumni engagement with Colby. Of course, the successful candidate will have a strong appreciation for Colby and the residential liberal arts education the College provides.

I welcome suggestions from you regarding anyone who you believe would be a strong candidate for this position. I have assembled a search advisory committee to assist me. It includes Alumni Council members Jessica D’Ercole Stanton ’92, Chris Vickers’87, Director of Housing Sui Kim Cheah ’99, Colby magazine editor Gerry Boyle’78, and Zacamy Professor of English Peter Harris. I also have consulted with Hope Palmer Bramhall ’56, current president of the Alumni Council, and Robert Hoopes ’89, the incoming president.

The position description is posted online, and we will begin reviewing credentials on August 1.

Please e-mail me at vpcr@colby.edu with your suggestions. I want to thank you for your thoughts on this matter, and I will let you know when we have concluded our search.

Sincerely,

Richard A. Ammons
Vice President for College Relations