What do you do?
I am the director of annual giving, so I’m in charge of raising operational support for the University. The Annual Fund is sort of like the University checking account; the money that’s raised is spent to meet Drake’s immediate needs.

What are you working on right now?
Right now I’m focused on All In, our 24-hour online giving campaign. Days of giving were becoming increasingly popular among our peers, so we decided to try it two years ago and we’ve been really successful.  We raised almost $100,000 last year alone. This year’s campaign is May 10-11, noon to noon. The idea is that we want people to naturally engage with us online, so we produce a lot of video with University Communications and promote via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, the website, and email. We try to make it fun and engage people—for example, some pharmacy professors are doing a race to see who can put on the most white coats, some arts and sciences faculty are doing an interpretive dance , and Craig Owens did a bedtime story last year that was hilarious.

You have three adorable kids—what do you love most about being a mom?
One thing that I love is seeing traits that I’ve always loved about my husband in my children. It’s neat to see these mini versions of yourself. I’m kind of a homebody and am a family-oriented person, and I just love having my people around me. Kids are so resilient and forgiving and you are just everything to them. Adults hold grudges, kids are always in your corner.

My daughter likes things a particular way, which is just like me. She also has this confidence—I think it comes from my husband—and she thinks this is her world and we are just living in it. She walks in a room and thinks she owns the room. My son is really smart and always has to know everything. I love watching his brain work. My baby is a huge mama’s boy, and I love that.