SIUE Foundation Welcomes Connie Collins
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) Chancellor James T. Minor has named Connie Collins, CFRE, as Vice Chancellor for University Advancement (VCUA) and CEO of the SIUE Foundation. Collins will assume her new responsibilities on January 22, 2024, pending approval from the SIU Board of Trustees.
“SIUE continues to build a team positioned to markedly enhance our strategies for philanthropy that supports SIUE’s ambition to be a best-in-class university,” said Minor. “Collins’s expertise with comprehensive advancement planning, major gifts, and large campaigns strengthens our ability to elevate relationships with alumni, donors and the region.”
As VCUA, Collins will oversee annual giving, financial affairs, major gifts, prospect research, stewardship, planned giving and constituent relations, as well as the SIUE Alumni Association and the SIUE Foundation Board of Directors.
An accomplished advancement leader, Collins has more than 25 years of experience in nonprofit leadership and fundraising and arrives to SIUE after serving as Associate Vice President for Foundation Relations and Principal Gifts at the University of Arizona. In this role, Collins served on the senior staff team that directs the University’s $3 billion Fuel Wonder campaign. She led a central fundraising team charged with raising $50 million in private foundation funding annually, recently securing a $5 million gift to name the Center for Biodiversity, Conservation Science, and Policy.
Collins previously served as Vice Chancellor for Advancement at Missouri University of Science and Technology, celebrated as the first female vice chancellor appointed in the state of Missouri. She also served in similar leadership roles for Kamehameha Schools, Arizona State University, the Nature Conservancy, and the University of Missouri System.
Collins holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the University of Illinois, an MBA from Washington University St. Louis, and completed the Harvard Management Development Program from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is the recipient of two National CASE Circle of Excellence Awards in Fundraising (2005, 2009) and holds the Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) designation.
A native of Toulon, Illinois, Collins looks forward to returning to her home state and becoming involved in the Edwardsville community.
PHOTO: Connie Collins, CFRE, Vice Chancellor for University Advancement (VCUA) and CEO of the SIUE Foundation
