Dear Colleagues:

I am very pleased to announce the appointment of John Valva as Executive Director of Alumni and Constituent Affairs at the UC Office of the President, effective October 25, 2010.

Many of you know John from his prior work at two UC campuses.  A Berkeley graduate, he served as director of marketing and membership for the Cal Alumni Association from 1997 to 2001, then went on to serve as executive director of the UC San Diego Alumni Association from 2001 to 2007.  His tenure at UCSD included substantial increases in alumni giving, dues-paying membership, numbers of actively engaged alumni, numbers of alumni chapters and groups, student participation in alumni efforts, and scholarship and administrative endowments.

Since then, John has been involved in two innovative ventures outside the University.  From 2007 to 2009 he served as chief operating and development officer, and then as CEO, of Youthnoise, a San Francisco organization utilizing social networking tools to support and promote the civic engagement, political activism, and legislative advocacy of college and high school students.  Most recently he has served as national director of development for Raising A Reader, a Bay Area-based nonprofit that promotes early literacy and school readiness through early reading programs for children in 26 states.

John’s background and skills are ideally suited to the leadership position we have created in the newly reorganized Alumni and Constituent Affairs unit at UCOP.  This position, reporting to me, will continue to serve the AAUC officers and the campus alumni directors, work to advance systemwide alumni relations strategies and sharing of best practices, and serve as the voice of alumni at the Office of the President.  As part of the restructuring, it now will also focus on the identification and engagement of individuals, business groups, trade organizations, regional and statewide associations, and other organizations with whom the University must develop closer relationships and forge common cause on issues of mutual interest.  In this way, working closely with Governmental Relations and Communications, the position will support and continue to expand our third-party advocacy efforts.

I want to thank the UC alumni affairs community, which provided a substantial amount of input to us on the structure and functions of this position as it was developed.  And I want to extend special appreciation to the search committee, which consisted of Rex Hime, AAUC president; Babs Sandeen, vice chancellor for university relations at UC Davis; Ralph Amos, assistant vice chancellor for alumni relations at UCLA; David Shewmake, former AAUC president; and Brad Hayward, deputy to the senior vice president.

John will be in touch with many of you around the system as he gets re-oriented to UC.  Please join me in extending congratulations and best wishes to him.

Sincerely,

Daniel M. Dooley
Senior Vice President
External Relations

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