More than $3.35 million

in New Funding Raised for the Neag School
in FY23-24.

26th Annual Alumni Awards

The Neag School’s 26th Annual Alumni Awards Celebration was held in-person in March 2024 in the Student Union Ballroom and consisted of an awards ceremony that recognized three Neag Alumni Board Scholarship Recipients, one Rogers Award winner, and eight Alumni Awardees. This event was attended by over 130 alumni, faculty, staff, family, and friends.

• Outstanding School Educator: Amber Dickey ’16 (CLAS), ’16 (ED), ’17 MA
• Outstanding Professional: Kathleen England ’85 (ED), ’94 MA, ’13 ELP
• Outstanding Early Career Professional: Claudia Bouchard ’19 MA
• Outstanding School Administrator: Scott Hurwitz ’06 (ED), ’07 MA, ’19 Ed.D., ’21 ELP
• Outstanding School Superintendent: David Petrone ’92 MA, ’99 6th Year, ’12 ELP
• Outstanding Higher Education Professional: Susannah Richards ’03 Ph.D.
• Outstanding Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Professional: Madeline Negrón ’98 MA, ’12 Ph.D., ’15 ELP
• Distinguished Alum: Carmen Effron ’72 (ED), ’81 MBA
• 2024 Rogers Educational Innovation Fund Awardee: Victoria Raucci & Davis Academy

2023-2024 Neag School Alumni Board

The Neag School Alumni Board has a history of influencing the School’s outreach in the alumni community and supporting current and future students. Board members who supported all the efforts are listed below.

• Danielle Derosa ’09, ’16
• Sharon Fuller ’83, ’87, ’94
• Ryan Haynes ’20
• Carl Johnson ’03, ’04, ’15 (Secretary)
• Bryan Kirby ’18, ’19
• Shay Lewis ’20
• Faith Celeste Mccarthy ’17, ’18
• Stephanie Muehlethaler ’09
• Timothy Neville ’06, ’18 (Vice President)
• Wura Olusekun ’16
• Emmanuel Omokaro ’11, ’12
• Haralambos (Bobby) Skarvelas ’06, ’07, ’13, ’21
• Jocelyn Tamborello-Noble ’03, ’04, ’09 (President)
• Kim Wachtelhausen ’08 (Past President)
• Carter Welch ’99, ’11, 12
• Jeffrey Wihbey ’95, ’06, ’16

Alumni Board Scholarship Awards

Funded by gifts from Neag School alumni, this award supports current Neag School students who are continuing their education.

• John Burrell — Doctoral student in giftedness, creativity, and talent development
• Joshua Sukumar — Doctoral student in research methods, measurement, and evaluation
• Damiao Zoe Xu — Doctoral student in learning, leadership and education policy

Fundraising

Each year, a Strategic Fundraising Plan is developed that outlines funding priorities, which include:

• Undergraduate and Graduate Student Support (e.g., scholarships, 5th year master’s degree, doctoral recruitment, unmet need, etc.)
• Program Support (e.g., teacher education, global education, etc.)
• Faculty Support (e.g., endowments, research support, etc.)
• Interdisciplinary Collaborations (Feel Your Best Self project, etc.)

Working collaboratively with the UConn Foundation’s Neag School Director of Development, we implemented a multi-pronged strategic approach to engage multiple stakeholders in the Neag School’s fundraising efforts as part of our FY24 Strategic Plan. The Neag School celebrated the 25th anniversary of the official naming in 1999 thanks to Ray and Carole Neag’s transformative gift. This year also marked increased solicitation of foundation and corporate support, the sixth year of the Dean’s Board of Advocates and a successful UConn Gives campaign. Collectively, these efforts resulted in the generation of $3,355,407 of new funding for the Neag School, exceeding the $2.5 million fundraising goal for the year.

Advancement Team

The goal of the Neag School’s Advancement Team is to support the mission of the Neag School and its Development, Alumni Relations, and Communications Divisions. The members of the Advancement Team work individually with the dean in areas of responsibility and collaboratively as a unit in consultation with the dean. In FY24, the members of the Advancement Team included:

• Director of Development, Marcy Jarzabek
• Senior Director of Alumni Relations, Emily Auger Murray
• Director of Communications and Digital Strategy, Mikala Kane
• Publicity & Marketing Administrator, Shawn Kornegay
• Dean's Assistant, Katie Gelsomini

Working collaboratively with the dean and UConn Foundation, the Neag School Advancement Team:

• Leverages their individualized areas of expertise to maximize the dean’s ability to engage in high-value advancement efforts and promote the Neag School’s mission and funding priorities.
• Identifies programming and events to support the advancement mission of the Neag School; events are planned by the individuals whose role most closely matches the nature of the activity (e.g., alumni relations and development for donor specific events)
  • The team partnered with University Events to host the annual fall scholarship celebration event in-person in early October at the Student Union. There were 123 attendees and the featured donor speaker was Carmen Effron, chair of the Dean’s Board of Advocates.
  • The Neag School in partnership with the UConn Foundation hosted a 25th anniversary event on May 15 in Storrs that was attended by 135 guests. During the program the Neag Foundation announced a $250,000 match gift.

UConn Gives 2023

In conjunction with advancement team members in each academic unit, the UConn Foundation conducted the fifth annual UConn Gives on April 17-18, 2024. The Neag School launched an internal competition and yielded fantastic results with over $9,000 raised from 136 donors. The Neag School Alumni Board Endowed Scholarship fund came in first place among the Neag School projects. The Dr. Sue Saunders HESA Professional Development Fund raised $3,155 and won a match gift challenge ($500) funded by Dr. Saunders raising $3,655 total.

• Neag School Alumni Board Endowed Scholarship — 58 donors, $4,473
• Dr. Sue Saunders HESA Professional Development Fund — 56 donors, $3,655
• Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction: Forging a Path for Aspiring Educators — 22 donors, $1,600

2023-2024 Dean's Board of Advocates