Campus & Community

HDS names associate dean for development

3 min read

Harvard Divinity School (HDS) Dean William A. Graham has announced the appointment of Elizabeth (Betsy) Sloane as the new associate dean for development and alumni/ae relations at HDS, to start this month.

Since March 2002, Sloane has been president of the University of Hawaii

Betsy Sloane

Foundation, which coordinates fundraising for that university system’s 10 campuses. Earlier, she was co-founder and president of K@tapult Inc., a firm in Cambridge that provided fundraising, strategic planning, and program design services in the public and private sectors. In that role, for example, she worked with Harvard University to create a successful community-partnership program with Cambridge and Boston. From 1995 to 1998, Sloane was associate vice president for development and alumni programs at Trinity College in Hartford.

“Betsy clearly has the kind of varied professional experience that will serve HDS well as we all act with increasing focus to enhance the School’s mission, programs of study, and physical plant in the months and years to come,” Graham said in announcing the appointment. “In addition, she is very familiar with the distinctive nature of divinity school life, holding an M.Div. degree from Yale University.”

After graduating from Yale Divinity School, Sloane worked through the 1980s and early ’90s in a variety of capacities to develop public-private partnerships that would improve inner-city neighborhoods, especially in regard to housing, education, child care, and the arts.

“At this point in my career,” said Sloane, who also holds a B.A. degree from Wheaton College, “I am interested in institutions that can bring new perspectives and robust dialogue to key issues which affect all of us. Harvard Divinity School, under the leadership of Dean Graham, is such a place. The dean, administration, faculty, and students are creating a new vision for the School. I am honored to be a part of the team that will realize this new vision in partnership with our alumni, volunteers, and donors.”

In announcing the appointment, Graham added the following comment, referring to the extra work done in the past several months by the School’s associate dean for finance and administration: “I want to take this opportunity to underscore how fortunate we have been that Tim Cross has been willing to do double duty since last summer by standing in as acting associate dean for development – it is impossible to imagine anyone else doing so with as much skill, grace, and humor, and I want to thank him publicly for this unusual and unusually successful service to HDS.”

“Now,” the dean added, “we are fortunate to have attracted Betsy to HDS, and fortunate yet again that she can start work here in early April. Please join me in welcoming her to our community.”