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Vice President for University Advancement & Alumni Engagement
Carlow University
Carlow University, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, seeks an accomplished Vice President for University Advancement & Alumni Engagement to provide strategic leadership at a consequential moment in the University's history. Reporting directly to President Kathy W. Humphrey, PhD, and serving as Carlow's Chief Advancement Officer and a member of the President's Cabinet, the Vice President will lead an enterprise whose impact reaches across the University and extends into the lives of the individuals, families, organizations, and communities Carlow serves. Philanthropic investment helps make possible the programs, partnerships, student opportunities, and community initiatives through which Carlow creates an impact disproportionate to its size - advancing social mobility, responding to consequential community needs, and extending its Mercy mission well beyond the boundaries of campus.
Carlow enters the search with genuine institutional and philanthropic momentum. Enrollment has grown 19.5% since Fall 2020; academic and community partnerships are expanding; and innovative programs responsive to workforce and community needs have strengthened the University's reach and relevance. Intentional work to clarify Carlow's identity and expand external engagement has also increased awareness of who Carlow is, whom it serves, and the impact of its work. Carlow has demonstrated that compelling ideas rooted in mission and responsive to human need can attract significant investment from individuals, foundations, corporations, government, and community partners. Its philanthropic case therefore extends well beyond a traditional alumni-centered fundraising model.
Carlow has already demonstrated its philanthropic potential. The next Vice President will build the Advancement enterprise needed to bring greater strategy, discipline, scale, and sustainability to that work. Current vacancies provide meaningful latitude to assess organizational design, align talent and responsibilities with the capabilities Carlow needs, recruit strategically, and strengthen the systems and infrastructure required for increasingly sophisticated fundraising. Importantly, this work must occur while maintaining momentum in relationships, solicitations, campaign priorities, and philanthropic opportunities. The President and Board of Trustees recognize that Carlow's ambitions require corresponding investment and are committed to strengthening the people, technology, and resources necessary to support this work.
Central to the role will be a close strategic partnership with President Humphrey, an energetic, externally engaged, and respected leader who is prepared to be an active partner in advancing Carlow's philanthropic priorities. The Vice President will serve as the University's senior Advancement strategist: establishing priorities, determining where presidential, and other leadership, engagement can have the greatest impact, preparing the President for important donor and partner interactions, and driving cultivation and solicitation strategies forward. The Vice President will also engage trustees, academic leaders, and colleagues throughout Carlow, helping evaluate, prioritize, and translate the University's abundance of ideas and aspirations into focused and compelling opportunities for investment.
Pittsburgh provides a particularly fertile environment for this work. The region's longstanding culture of philanthropy and its concentration of foundations, healthcare organizations, financial institutions, corporations, nonprofit organizations, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and other partners create a broad landscape for relationship development. Carlow already has meaningful connections across many of these sectors. Its more than 19,000 living alumni remain an important constituency, particularly in the Pittsburgh region, while representing one part of a much broader universe of prospective supporters and partners.
Success will require a leader with both fundraising depth and organizational range: an accomplished fundraiser personally comfortable cultivating, soliciting, and closing gifts at the million-dollar level and above; a strategist capable of establishing priorities within an innovative and entrepreneurial institution; a builder who can create a stronger, more sustainable Advancement enterprise and develop the people within it; and a hands-on, action-oriented executive who can translate strategy into action. Higher education experience may be valuable, but Carlow is equally interested in accomplished nonprofit and mission-driven fundraising leaders who know how to inspire significant investment around purpose and impact.
At Carlow, the work feels consequential because it is consequential. Its results are visible in the opportunities created for students, families, professionals, organizations, and communities. This role offers the opportunity to do more than raise money or complete a campaign. The next Vice President will have unusual agency to build something enduring: an Advancement enterprise capable of expanding the resources available to Carlow and, through Carlow, extending the University's impact well into its second century.
To view the full Position Prospectus please copy and paste the following URL into a new tab: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:3ff22220-9615-4dfa-965e-457b10162400
LeadExec is partnering with Carlow University in this national search. For inquiries, nominations, applications, and confidential conversations, please contact:
Lisa J. Marks, Founder & CEO
Leyla Kayi, Senior Search Consultant
413.335.6936
advancement@leadexec.com
This position is open until filled but only applications received by Thursday, October 1, 2026, can be assured full consideration. Applications should include a detailed letter of interest and a current curriculum vitae/resume.
Carlow University employees commit themselves to the highest standards of ethical conduct. They commit to act with integrity, treat others with respect and dignity, carefully steward the University's resources, avoid conflicts of interest or commitment, maintain confidentiality, and to comply with legal and professional obligations.
Carlow University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. We strive for a campus that reflects our urban setting and is inclusive of underrepresented groups to enhance our University community.