Key changes in YDS Development and Alumni Relations

By Dean Greg Sterling

 

I am writing to inform the greater YDS community about important personnel changes in the Development and Alumni Relations area of the YDS administration.

 

Barbara Sabia will join us as the new Director of Development at YDS. She will start July 10th.

 

Barbara has the talent, experience, and energy to build our development program and enable us to complete our most important fundraising initiatives: the effort to meet students’ full demonstrated tuition need by 2022 and raising funds to construct the Living Village.

 

Barbara is currently Director of Development at Yale Law School. Prior to her appointment at the Law School, she led development at several private schools, including Westover School, the Gunnery, and the Willow School. She began her career at Skidmore College, her alma mater, where she directed several important fundraising initiatives.

 

Barbara has a track record of success both in building programs and in empowering them to succeed. We are very fortunate to have someone with her record and drive join us. I hope that you will make it a point to meet her and welcome her to YDS this summer.

 

Gail Briggs, who has led Alumni Relations and Annual Giving at YDS for ten years, has announced her retirement in mid-July.

 

Gail will leave with a remarkable record of success. Annual Fund giving has grown by more than 35 percent under her conscientious leadership over the past decade. She has led efforts to enhance Convocation & Reunions through greater participation by YDS faculty, special tributes to the reunion classes and alumni award recipients, and the introduction of a Dean’s Award for Outstanding Service. More recently, she has successfully managed our series of public forums in different cities around the country, on issues from immigration debate and gun violence to the moral urgency of addressing climate change.

 

Finding a worthy successor to Gail will be very difficult. We will initiate a search in the coming weeks and hope to have a new Director in place in time for the 2019-2020 academic year.

 

Please join me in congratulating Gail on her excellent career in alumni relations, both at YDS and Wesleyan University before she joined us. We wish her all the best in the next stage of life.

 

 

Jim’s passion for, and deep knowledge of, YDS and Yale made him a dynamic and persuasive fundraiser for YDS these past five years. Among other significant accomplishments during his tenure, he has built a great relationship with the university’s central development office, developed a data base of potential donors, helped us make real progress on our fund-raising goals, and become a widely recognized professional throughout Yale. In addition, each fall he has welcomed new students by presenting a history of YDS, and he has regularly offered a workshop on fundraising for our students.

 

We will miss Jim tremendously but take heart in knowing he will continue to be an enthusiastic alumnus and champion of this school.

 

Please join me in welcoming Barbara Sabia, and in thanking Gail and Jim for all that they have done for YDS.