Judith Heasley, the second candidate for Emporia State University’s chief fund-raising position, visited the campus Thursday.
Heasley is presently the vice-president for institutional advancement at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo. If hired, she would become the director of university advancement and president of the ESU Foundation.
“I’ve been asked all day, ‘Why Emporia?’” Heasley said at an open forum Thursday in the Flint Hills room of the ESU Memorial Union. “It just fits the position I’ve been looking for as the capstone to my career — to come into a place that has the fund-raising infrastructure down, with maybe some room for a little tweaking, work for a brand new, dynamic president and be ready to roll.”
Fort Lewis was a chance for Heasley to breathe again after working for two large universities: Arizona State University from 1998 to 2005 and Weber State University in Ogden, Utah from 1992 to 1996. At ASU, a 70,000 student campus, she was part of a $560 million campaign that left her drained.
“Those big campaigns can virtually suck the life out of you,” Heasley said. “Everyone is always on. A lot of my colleagues either retired or went to smaller institutions. ... You want to go places where you know the students’ faces and where the students don’t spend their four years learning from a teaching assistant. So Fort Lewis seemed like a good place.”
Heasley began her fund raising career in Texas Tech while working for the business school. The person in charge of fund raising was having a difficult pregnancy and Heasley was asked to fill in at an alumni dinner, since she was used to giving presentations. She soon found she had a knack.
At prior postings, she encouraged her staff to join at least one community organization, so they could be a part of the community they were soliciting from.
“I like everyone to belong to something — it’s good citizenship,” Heasley said. “If you’re going to take, you have to give.”
She likes to work closely with the deans in fund raising, she said, for one simple reason: they’re the experts on their school and she isn’t.
“I’d rather take the expert with me, so the donor can get the whole story,” she said.