Elizabeth Mitchell has been working at the Smith School for two years as the director of development in the Office of External Relations (OER). She holds a master's of divinity from Harvard University where she self-designed her program in nonprofit management and philanthropy, and has worked in development for more than 15 years for universities and colleges. In her current position she manages a team within OER whose primary focus is to reach out individually to alumni and friends in order to help them develop a lifelong relationship with the Smith School. These relationships result in individual philanthropy, volunteering, employer recruitment, and developing an active alumni network. However, development is just one aspect of the OER here at Smith. The mission of the department as a whole is to build the Robert H. Smith School of Business community by engaging alumni, friends and corporations in mutually beneficial relationships.

Mitchell’s favorite thing about working at Smith is facilitating connections between the alumni and the school itself in order to build relationships that will help further Smith’s goals of preparing graduates to be the next generation of business leaders and positioning itself in the community to achieve greatness. While helping the school work towards its goals one thing Mitchell is trying to improve upon is reconnecting the alumni that have not been involved with the school for many years. She knows that there are a number of alumni who want to reconnect with Smith, but are not sure how. It is her goal to find a way to get those individuals involved in the community, to facilitate connecting their personal interests with volunteer opportunities at Smith, and to educate them on how their funding and support can benefit Smith.

A step that was recently taken to achieve those goals, was the launch of the $90 million Great Expectations Campaign to raise money for a number of causes, some of which include program support for research centers such as the Netcentric Research Laboratories and the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, scholarships for both undergraduate and graduate students, faculty chairs and professorships, and learning environments such as technology and the new North Wing. So far, more than $47 million has been raised towards this goal and the department will spend the next five years raising the remainder of the money.

Smith students benefit everyday from the work that OER does, whether it’s through participating in the MBA alumni mentor program or attending an event made possible by their fund raising efforts. The office also works with other departments here at Smith to benefit the community. For example, OER works with the Office of Career Management in order to bring in alumni whose corporations have interest in recruiting at Smith.

As an individual who works with alumni everyday in order to support the current Smith community, Mitchell has the following advice to give Smith Students: “Attend the networking events with alumni and stay connected when you graduate. The ongoing success of the Smith School community resides in a strong and engaged alumni network. You can help yourselves and your classmates once you graduate by staying engaged as a volunteer such as serving as a mentor, supporting the Smith School financially, recruiting at the Smith School as an employer, and keeping connected to your classmates. Being a graduate of the Smith School of Business is a lifelong relationship, one that we hope is both professionally and personally rewarding.”

Story by Lettie Goodridge, MBA Candidate 2008, Smith Media Group