Greetings from WASHBURN & MCGOLDRICK!

I hope your year-end numbers were encouraging, your time off was restorative and your 2024 is off to a healthy start.

With the new year brings an important organizational change at WASHBURN & MCGOLDRICK. I am happy to announce that Carla Willis, senior consultant since 2019, has been named a managing principal for the firm, effective January 2024.

I am also letting you know that, after nearly a decade at the firm’s helm, my dear friend, colleague, and fellow managing principal Karin George is passing the baton to Carla to handle business operational management responsibilities for WASHBURN & MCGOLDRICK. Not to worry, however: Karin will remain an active and influential principal of the firm, continuing to serve as lead counsel with her wonderful group of clients. She will also continue to bring you – and us – her keen insights and thought leadership in the profession. This change in the firm’s management structure also enables Karin to devote more time to her leadership responsibilities as vice chair of the board of trustees of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.

For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to meet or work with Carla yet, let me recap her career briefly. Carla joined WASHBURN & MCGOLDRICK as a senior consultant in 2019, following a 25-year campus-based fundraising and consulting career in higher education advancement and thought leadership. She has worked in every area of frontline advancement, including major and principal gifts, planned gifts, corporate and foundations, as well as campaign planning and execution, among others. In addition, her background includes working at two Big Ten institutions (including the University of Michigan, the newly crowned national champions in football), large public universities, both public and private liberal arts colleges, law schools, an HBCU and an academic medical center.

Prior to joining the firm, she served in senior advancement leadership roles at UNC Asheville, Kean University and Florida A&M University (FAMU) In these leadership roles, Carla also led each university’s foundation operations. She also served in a long-term interim CAO role at Saint Leo University.

Carla will continue to serve a diverse range of WASHBURN & MCGOLDRICK clients including DePauw University, Duke University, Guilford College, Haverford College, Lincoln University (PA), the UNC System, the University of Toledo, and Virginia State University. Her projects have included pre-campaign readiness assessments, feasibility studies, executive and staff coaching, as well as staff, faculty, and volunteer training.

When planning for this changing of the guard, Karin and I chose Carla because we recognized that Carla shares our passionate commitment to ensuring the personal, customized and best-in-class service to our clients that has always been a hallmark of the firm since Bill McGoldrick and Sue Washburn founded it in 1995. Carla will sustain the care, innovation and growth Karin and I have sought for the firm over the past ten years. I look forward to working in tandem with Carla in leading this next chapter in the firm’s history as we approach our 30th anniversary in 2025.

On behalf of Karin, Carla, our fellow principal Anne Berry, consulting partner Chris Marshall and our entire team of amazing consultants and staff, thank you for giving us the opportunity to partner with you. We feel fortunate to have the opportunity to work with so many talented professionals helping you achieve and exceed your goals.