ACCENT ON ALUMNI
Alumni Spotlight: Jerome Davies, MNO '94
Q. You are currently the Senior Vice President for Development at KU Endowment Association. Please tell us a bit about your organization and your responsibilities in this position.
I came to the KU Endowment Association in August of 2000 as the Assistant Vice President for Major Gifts and was subsequently named Vice President for Development in July of 2002. Now in my eighth year, I have been serving as Senior Vice President for Development since being appointed to this role in February of 2005.
KU Endowment was established in 1891 as America's first private foundation for a public university and has as its mission to solicit, receive and administer gifts and bequests for the support and advancement of the University of Kansas. Today, KU Endowment's total assets are valued at $1.43 billion. When I started working for KU Endowment, we were fresh off the close of fiscal year 2000 (July 1, 1999 - June 30, 2000), during which donors to KU Endowment provided gifts totaling more than $53 million. For the fiscal year 2007, just ending, donors contributed more than $77.7 million for the benefit of KU. Many of those gifts, plus endowed earnings, permitted KU Endowment to provide nearly $95 million in private support to the University of Kansas during the past year.
All of that is to say that I am primarily involved in the management and administration of KU Endowment's comprehensive fundraising program involving nearly 70 development staff in everything from annual, major, deferred, corporate and foundation giving programs. Our development staff members support the fundraising initiatives of the key academic and other programmatic areas of the University of Kansas by concentrating a bulk of their energy and time on the major gift fundraising efforts critical to KU's success as an academic institution.
Q. How do you think your degree from the Mandel Center has impacted your professional life?
Quite simply, I cannot imagine my professional life without the benefit of the knowledge I acquired through the curriculum, group projects, internships and faculty mentoring of the Mandel Center. Though I have clearly focused my professional pursuits since leaving the Center on development, I have applied numerous elements of my degree to the various situations I have found myself in during the past 13 and one-half years working in higher education. The practical experience I gained with classmates collaborating on projects, visiting the Foundation Center Library, interviewing key staff from a variety of Cleveland area nonprofits all gave me a wealth of information that I continue to apply to work that I engage in today. In a very practical sense, the ability to represent myself as someone with the very unique MNO credentials that I acquired, and the experience I have gained since, continues to propel me forward professionally.
Q. What did you enjoy most about your time at the Mandel Center?
The learning that occurred while studying, engaging, debating and collaborating with staff, faculty and my classmates still stands out as both the most enjoyable and important elements of my time at the Mandel Center. I have shared with many over the years that while completing my undergraduate degree at Utah State University, I discovered myself, but that at the Mandel Center, I really found what I wanted to do with myself.
Q. What advice would you give to current or potential students regarding how they can make the most of their Mandel Center experience?
Above all else, take every opportunity to engage with the human capital available at the Mandel Center, in the Cleveland community and in various other sectors where you may find yourself while pursuing your certificate or degree. I discovered that not only did engaging with the people around me enhance my coursework, but my overall learning experience was significantly strengthened. In my particular case, the relationships I developed with people in and around the Center were the difference between simply getting a degree and developing through my interactions with them, the interpersonal and analytical skills that proved critical to both my professional and personal growth.
Q. What are some activities, interests, hobbies, etc that you try to make time for?
My wife, Melanie, and I are the proud parents of three sons, ages 4, 9 and 12. Simply keeping up with the pace of their lives has kept us involved in all variety of sports, scouts and various excursions. As a result, I am still a huge sports fan and look for every opportunity to sneak away some time for golf (though as many have reminded me over the years, it's a good thing golfing isn't my profession). I remain an avid runner and as a family we try and maximize opportunities to be outside, be it hiking, playing games, or traveling to the Rocky Mountains for time away. This summer Melanie and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.
Q. Is there anything else you would like to share with us about your Mandel Center experience?
My time at the Mandel Center, starting in August of 1992 and running through about February of 1994, was one of the most important and influential periods of my adult life. That period provided me with the most significant, focused educational experiences I had participated in to that point in my life. What I learned about and was exposed to at the Mandel Center I continue to drawn upon today in both my work and life.
