After losing its director in December, Ohio University’s Office of University Advancement will lose three of its four assistant vice presidents, as well as the assistant to the vice president at the end of
this year.
Assistant Vice President for Advancement Administration Margaret Sheskey, Assistant Vice President for Advancement Services Juan Cueto and Assistant Vice President for Development Larry Lafferty are all leaving OU within the next three months. Michelle Pence, assistant to the vice president, is also leaving.
“People are coming and going from the university all the time,” said Becky Watts, chief of staff to OU President Roderick McDavis.
Sheskey is taking an early retirement June 30, and Pence, who will also leave June 30, is moving from the Athens area because her husband was offered a new job, Watts said. Cueto has accepted a position at Florida International University and will leave May 20.
Watts said she did not know Lafferty’s plans after he leaves July 29.
The four employees could not be reached for comment.
Graham Stewart, assistant vice president for alumni relations, will be the only remaining assistant vice president in the office of University Advancement.
Howard Lipman, former vice president for University Advancement and CEO of the OU Foundation, left in December for a similar position at FIU. Lipman also could not be reached for comment, and FIU did not respond to a request for confirmation that any OU employees had been offered positions at their university.
McDavis is currently deciding “how to meet the needs of each of these changes,” Watts said, adding the president will name interim assistant vice presidents soon.
Since Lipman’s departure, McDavis has served as interim vice president during the search for a replacement. The university has narrowed down the search to two finalists: Bryan Benchoff, president and CEO of the University of South Dakota Foundation and Lori Lewis, vice president for Advancement at Marietta College.
McDavis should announce the new vice president for University Advancement within the next couple weeks, Watts said.
These departures will not affect the university’s capital campaign, she said.
The fundraising campaign has been going on for about four years and its goal is to raise $450 million by June 30, 2015. With the $105 million gift the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations recently awarded to OU's College of Osteopathic Medicine, the total amount raised for the capital campaign is now $338.4 million.
Despite the further loss of employees from University Advancement, there will continue to be people in the office making sure the capital campaign is going well, Watts said.
The advancement resignations follow recent announcements that four OU deans will resign. Ben Ogles, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Greg Shepherd, dean of the Scripps College of Communication; Rathindra Bose, dean of the Graduate College; and Dan Evans, executive dean of regional higher education, will all leave OU at the end of this academic year.
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