New Vice President for University Advancement Appointed
Alphonce
J. Brown, Jr. is the new vice president of University
Advancement at CSU Dominguez Hills. He assumed his duties July 31, 2000.
University Advancement is the division responsible for private fund-raising and for University and Government Relations, which includes the offices of Alumni Relations, Media Relations, and Public Affairs & Publications.
Announcing the appointment, President James E. Lyons, Sr., praised the work of the university committee that spent several months reviewing candidates nationwide to fill the vacancy left by Melba F. Coleman, who retired in June. Lyons said that Brown's experience has prepared him well for the job.
"I look forward to Mr. Brown joining the executive team," Lyons says. "I am confident that he will provide appropriate leadership as we move forward in advancing the university."
The diversity of the University is what drew him to take interest in CSUDH, Brown says. He is chairman of the Diversity Committee of the 22,000-member National Society of Fundraising Executives.
"When people talk about 'diversity,' they usually talk in terms of 'ethnicity,'" Brown says. "But, Dominguez Hills is so much more than that. Its diversity is not only in its many ethnicities, but also in its nationalities, its religious faiths, its ages of students, its percentage of men and women, its daytime and nighttime students. It's inclusive of so many different types of people. That is what attracted me. It seemed like a perfect fit."
Having served most recently as executive director of the National Kidney Foundation of Southwest Texas, Brown's résumé spans more than a quarter-century.
He began in the private sector in 1972, working in sales for a dozen years at companies across the country, from the Deep South to the eastern seaboard, from the plains states to the Southwest.
Then came his focus on higher education.
His shift to the schools seemed only natural, Brown says. Education is in my family," he explains. "My mom was an elementary school teacher for 34 years. My uncle was a president of a university. My brother is a principal at an elementary school… And, I'm the caretaker of the matriarch of the family, who is now 104. She was teaching a college history course at 94…
"I grew up appreciating the fact that education is the ticket to ride in life. So, my service here and at other institutions of higher education are my way of saying 'Thank you' for the opportunities afforded us."
In 1984, at the University of Texas at Austin College and Graduate School of Business, Brown served three years as assistant to the dean, associate director for Development, two years as director, Alumni Affairs & Special Programs, and three years as assistant dean, Alumni Affairs & Special Programs.
In 1992, Brown was appointed associate director, Development, School of Medicine, UCLA. One year later, he accepted the post of executive director and chief executive officer at Prairie View A&M University Foundation, where he remained three years.
In 1996, Brown started his own company — Visionary Concepts Consulting — in Houston, Texas. One year later, he was named executive director, National Kidney Foundation of Southwest Texas, Houston, where he remained until May of this year.
Now, his sights have shifted again, with a goal to raise $5.78 million in private donations to CSUDH, Brown says he plans to build support among alumnus statewide as well as corporations and individuals in the communities that the university serves.
"I don't feel pressure," Brown says. "What I feel is a great sense of need for the teamwork of faculty and staff and students to make this target a reality, year after year after year…
"The Dominguez Hills story is so important and vital," he adds, "Look at the success and contributions of its graduates, at the vitality of each individual and business it calls 'friend.' They are our legacy. They are our future."
Brown received a bachelor of arts degree in government and psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.
-T.W.
