Lafayette College named a new vice president for advancement, capping a four-month search and giving the college’s fundraising arm its first permanent leader since 2023.
Sean Scanlon, whose selection was announced on June 30, currently holds the same title at the College of the Holy Cross. He will officially assume the role on Aug. 11, replacing consultant Kim Verstandig, who filled the vacancy as an interim.
“The role of what a good advancement officer does is make those connections about the ideas and the learning that happens in the classroom,” Scanlon said. “That happens because of the faculty and students coming together. So what we want to do is to allow the donors to see that, to be able to have a direct connection and dialogue.”
Scanlon noted that the upcoming college bicentennial and the strategic plan posed “exciting factors” for his role in planning the upcoming financial campaign.
“Sean has incredible campaign experiences,” college President Nicole Hurd said. “He comes from some incredible institutions — Cornell, Syracuse, Holy Cross — and so just excited about his long-term leadership of the college.”
At Holy Cross, Scanlon oversaw the start of its new fundraising campaign, which included an increase in gifts by 20% from $40 million to $50 million in his two years at the school. Scanlon said that in building the advancement team at Holy Cross, the school utilized its “tremendous” alumni engagement and participation.
“Those lessons are fresh and are going to be very helpful as I get going with the team getting started next month,” Scanlon said.
In the seven years beforehand, he led a campaign for advancement at Syracuse University as the university’s vice president for development, transforming the school’s program as it underwent steady fundraising increases.
Although Scanlon’s time at Holy Cross was brief compared to his seven years at Syracuse and the eight years he spent beforehand in the development division at Cornell University, he said that he viewed his role at Lafayette as being more “long-term.”
“I’m fully committed to Lafayette to build the fundraising campaign and see the strategic plan through during the time of President Hurd’s tenure and beyond,” Scanlon said.
“I think Sean is in for the long haul,” Hurd said.
Psychology department head Jennifer Talarico, who served on the search committee for the position, said she found Scanlon to be a “compelling storyteller.”
“We wanted somebody that was open, that was engaging, that was interested in transparency, in collaboration, that was going to work with the different on-campus constituents, as well as many of the friends of Lafayette,” Talarico said.
At an open meeting held to steer the search for the new vice president, several advancement employees expressed frustration with the division, calling it “territorial” and describing confusion when collaborating with the college’s communications division and office of alumni engagement.
“Pulling together, for sure, is the way to go,” Scanlon said. “We need to really be aligned and to tell a really compelling story across the whole college.”
Lafayette’s new vice president for communications, Kathryn Meier, echoed this sentiment.
“I’m looking forward to having those conversations with Sean as the leader of the advancement group and working on those together to make sure we’re speaking with one voice,” Meier said. “And that’s, of course, Lafayette’s voice.”
Elisabeth Seidel ‘26 contributed reporting.