Dear Alumni, Parents, and Friends,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Chris Marshall to the position of associate vice president for alumni affairs.

Chris will provide strategic direction and leadership to Cornell’s global alumni programs, which engage 235,000 alumni with one another and with the university’s students, faculty, and staff. He will also be charged with developing the vision for alumni affairs programming in partnership with Far Above…The Campaign for Cornell, the $4 billion university campaign that is ongoing. Chris is expected to join us on June 1.

Hailed as a “builder of communities,” Chris comes to Cornell after serving seven years as executive director of the Lehigh University Alumni Association, where he restructured Lehigh’s regional and international presence for alumni events, improved its reunion program, and reinvigorated its alumni admissions outreach program. Under his direction, Lehigh received four Circle of Excellence awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. 

From 2004 to 2007, Chris also served as president of the Association of Private Colleges and University Alumni Directors, a group of 40 peer institutions from throughout the United States. He led the effort to develop an online benchmarking and assessment tool to measure successful alumni relations programs. 

Cornell is fortunate to have Chris in this important position. He possesses a charismatic combination of can-do entrepreneurial spirit and genuine warmth and sensitivity. He has shared with me and others his excitement to build and energize Cornell’s alumni programs and that he views Cornell as “exactly the right fit.”

I want to express my gratitude to Trustee Karen Rupert Keating ’76 for the time and commitment she devoted to chairing the search committee that helped bring Chris on board—and to all those who gave their energy and insight in the process. I also want to commend Margaret Gallo ’81 for the excellent leadership she provided as interim director of alumni affairs and on the search committee.

Please give Chris a warm welcome to Cornell!