It is with great pleasure that I announce the appointment of Ann Spira as vice chancellor for advancement (VCA), effective March 1, 2022.
Ann joined UC San Diego seven years ago after a 33-year career in the performing arts, most recently as Deputy General Director of San Diego Opera. During her time there, she was known as an innovator of marketing and development programs that propelled San Diego Opera into an internationally recognized company hailed for artistic and fiscal excellence. Most notably, during her tenure and leadership, San Diego Opera held the distinction of a 29-year history of consecutively balanced budgets; an unparalleled record in the performing arts.
At the height of production, the company had over 350 full time and seasonal employees. Ann was responsible for leading 50 staff that comprised the revenue team, front office and board development units. Together, they created the long-range strategic plan which successfully kept the company on its solid financial track, and the ongoing recruitment and leadership of the 60-member Board of Directors, which became one of the most highly contributing and respected in the region.
Upon joining UC San Diego, Ann created the Leadership Strategy and Engagement (LSE) unit with the mission to provide the strategy and facilitate the engagement of our top-tier volunteer leadership for the $2 billion Campaign for UC San Diego, which was reached successfully three years early and is on track to result in $3 billion by its close on June 30. Working in partnership with the chancellor, executive vice chancellor, vice chancellors, deans and Advancement leadership colleagues, Ann has directed LSE in the development and facilitation of multi-faceted strategies and personalized stewardship processes for donors and prospects who are the university’s most capable and generous donors in consideration of transformational gifts to support the campus’ highest priorities.
Also under Ann’s leadership, LSE established UC San Diego’s first-ever regional advancement program to raise $1M+ gifts in key markets such as New York, the Bay Area and Southern California. Through these programs and strategies, the 100-member strong Campaign Cabinet pledged $1 billion of the $3 billion anticipated campaign result, an historic leadership commitment.
Ann has an impressive record of partnering with her colleagues in raising eight and nine figure transformative gifts, establishing, and maintaining trusted faculty and donor relationships and a joy of recruiting new prospects to invest in trailblazing Triton initiatives.
The VCA has overall managerial responsibility for UC San Diego's development and alumni engagement enterprise, including career services, and is an Executive Vice President of the UC San Diego Foundation Board of Trustees. In this role, Ann will foster meaningful interactions with alumni, donors, UC San Diego community members, state and private agencies, as well as foundations and industry to promote campus fundraising opportunities and initiatives. Ann will also oversee the coordination of campus policies and practices related to the university’s interaction with industry, create new opportunities for enhancing fundraising activities, and provide leadership and direction for all university fundraising campaigns and transformational initiatives.
I sincerely thank Carol Chang, Emerita Chair of the UC San Diego Foundation Board of Trustees, for providing exceptional leadership as the chair of the search advisory committee and for ensuring that all voices were heard during the search process. I am grateful to the members of the search advisory committee and for the wide-ranging input from members of the campus community. The leadership and thoughtful contributions and insights from across the Triton community have resulted in a successful conclusion to the search.
Please join me in warmly welcoming Ann Spira to her new role as UC San Diego’s vice chancellor for advancement. Her collaborative approach, deep expertise and visionary leadership will continue to expand opportunities that promote and diversify the global prestige and distinction of our university’s scholarship, groundbreaking discovery and service to the region and beyond.
