Friends:

It's my great pleasure to share the news that Ara Serjoie will be joining the Haverford College community as our next vice president for institutional advancement (VPIA). With a career spent in service of mission-driven organizations as varied as higher education, healthcare, youth development, arts, and social justice, Ara was selected following a nationwide search stewarded by a committee of Haverford students, faculty, staff, and alumni. He will be a member of the Senior Staff.

Ara comes to Haverford from Guilford College, an undergraduate liberal arts institution with Quaker roots, located in Greensboro, North Carolina. As vice president for advancement at Guilford since August 2016, he provided vision and strategic direction for fundraising, alumni and constituent relations, and advancement operations. Guilford’s fundraising increased each year since his arrival and toward a non-campaign-year record of $8.4 million in FY20, 280% more than the year before Ara arrived.

Prior to joining Guilford, Ara was vice president of university advancement at California State University East Bay and president of the Cal State East Bay Educational Foundation. Before that, he served in leadership positions at Clark College Foundation in Vancouver, Washington, the Girl Scouts of Utah, the University of Utah, and Weber State University, also in Utah. Ara has been involved with and led several campaigns throughout his career, and at Guilford, he manages staff in the areas of annual giving, major gifts, planned giving, prospect research, advancement services, alumni and parent relations and associated advancement communications and special events.

A native of Iran, he lived in Tehran, West Berlin, and London before immigrating to the United States to pursue post-secondary education. Ara holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership and Human Resource Studies from Colorado State University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences from Utah State University and a master’s in Public Administration from the University of Utah with an emphasis in Nonprofit Leadership.

Ara has been an active and contributing member of the communities in which he has lived. This has included serving as a member of the Grants Committee of the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro as well as the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Advancement Board at Utah State University; the board of directors for the Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington and the Friends Board of the Vancouver (Washington) Symphony and Opera; and the board of directors for the Pride Center of Utah. He was a gubernatorial appointment to the Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Commission in Utah.

In accepting our offer, Ara said, "Haverford College epitomizes excellence in higher education in our country. You have a rich tradition of providing a values-based education and opportunities for students in and out of the classroom, people who develop the necessary skills to go into the world and chart a path that, in addition to ensuring their own successes, allows them to be active participants in the betterment of the world around them. To serve the College in this capacity is a great honor. In addition to bringing philanthropic support for such an important mission, I look forward to interacting with alumni/ae of the College and learning about them, their lives, and how they are in fact living the values of a Haverford education."

Haverford's Institutional Advancement team builds and sustains understanding, appreciation, and philanthropic support for the educational mission of the College by nurturing long-term and mutually-enriching relationships with alumni, students and prospective students, parents, and other friends of the College. Ara succeeds Acting VPIA Deb Strecker, who will return to her role as assistant vice president of individual giving, and to whom I am profoundly grateful for stepping into this important role January 1 and doing fantastic work as a College leader. The vacancy was created when Ann Figueredo '84 left the College after more than a decade with IA, a tenure that included the record-setting Lives That Speak fundraising campaign.

Please join me in thanking the search committee, whose members immersed themselves in a collaborative, thoughtful, and consensus-driven process throughout the semester:

Mike Casel (co-chair)
Guillermo Gómez
Evan LeFlore ’06 (president of Alumni Association Executive Committee)
Janice Lion
Elena Marcovici ‘21
Laura McGrane
Sophia Wan ‘23
Nathan Zullinger
Paul Zoidis, ’81 (member, Board of Managers)
Franklyn Cantor ’12 (staffing support for the search)

I also thank the many students, faculty, staff, and alumni who participated in campus and virtual meetups with Ara and the other finalists for the position. Ara will begin his work at Haverford on August 1. Please join me in extending a warm welcome to Ara!

Sincerely, Wendy

-- Wendy Raymond
President