Dear CC Community,
Just a few days after officially launching into my role as Colorado College president, I’m pleased to welcome a new member to our college leadership team. After a comprehensive national search, we have selected Mary Ann Schwartz Graffeo as vice president for advancement.
 Mary Ann will provide strategic direction and leadership for development, advancement services, alumni and parent relations, volunteer leadership, boards, college events, and annual giving. She will officially join CC on Aug. 18.
Mary Ann shares, “I am honored and delighted to be joining the Colorado College community of colleagues, friends, alumni, students, and their families. I look forward to being a part of President Richardson’s leadership team and to supporting her aspirational vision for the future of Colorado College. I am excited about getting started and about helping advance this extraordinary and unique learning community.”
Mary Ann is an accomplished team builder and highly effective leader. In addition, she brings vision that will help Colorado College become even stronger. I am excited to build on that vision as we work to increase access, further our antiracism commitment, and dedicate ourselves to continued academic excellence.
She joins CC after serving as senior associate dean of advancement at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering. At USC Viterbi, her leadership, strategy, and acumen for fundraising resulted in surpassing Viterbi’s campaign goal of $500 million, achieving the largest single fundraising initiative for an engineering school worldwide. She was personally credited with raising over $125 million in support of transformative initiatives throughout the school.
During her tenure from 2013 to 2021, Mary Ann and her advancement team added 63 new endowed scholarships and fellowships and 30 new endowed chairs and professorships. She launched multiple diversity and equity programs at USC Viterbi Advancement including an “Equity and Justice Primer” for team members and a department-wide “21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge.” She’s recognized by her USC colleagues for creating a culture of strategic collaboration, communication, and success, just a few of the traits that drew us to select Mary Ann to lead CC’s Advancement Division.
Throughout her nearly two-decade career, Mary Ann grew annual giving, surpassed major campaign goals by more than 30%, cultivated donors, formed meaningful relationships, and developed giving strategies at the University of Texas, as well as in the nonprofit and health care sectors.
I am thankful to our search committee and Board of Trustees for their leadership in this search.
Please join me in welcoming Mary Ann as she joins the CC community.
Sincerely,
L. Song Richardson
President
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