Lissa Gibbs
Lissa Gibbs has been named executive director of the Napa Valley College Foundation. She comes to Napa from Tucson, Arizona, where she served as the executive director of the Educational Enrichment Foundation, a community based foundation dedicated to providing direct resources for the students and teachers of Arizona’s second largest public school district.
“I am pleased that Lissa Gibbs has joined our staff as executive director of the Napa Valley College Foundation. Lissa is joining the college at a time when the work of the Foundation, its board, volunteers and generous donors is even more important to help us meet the needs of our students and to support college programs. The Foundation is embarking on an ambitious agenda to raise funds in mission critical areas of the college, such as the focus on degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), as well as support for high demand career areas in the Napa Valley. Lissa’s track record in successful fundraising is welcome news for the college faculty and staff and the community at large. I will be working closely with her as we implement the new direction of the Foundation,” said Dr. Edna Baehre-Kolovani, NVC president.
In addition to her extensive donor cultivation, grants, and special event planning experience, Gibbs’s professional experience also includes producing educational and network broadcast documentaries and teaching in middle, high school, and college level institutions. She has held leadership positions at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Tucson and at San Francisco’s Film Arts Foundation (FAF), working in all areas of operations including strategic planning, communications, public relations, board relations, program development, fundraising and cultivation, membership, grant writing, and budgeting.
“We are absolutely delighted to have someone of Lissa’s caliber and expertise at the helm of our foundation at this critical juncture in the College’s future. Lissa’s warmth, accessibility, and professionalism are key to the Foundation’s service to the community. Her past experience as both an educator and administrator are ideal for this position,” said NVC Foundation President Kathleen Lucier.
Says Gibbs, “I am firmly committed to advancing the important mission of Napa Valley College and am honored to be affiliated with an institution with such long and deeply established traditions of excellence and access. The College and its community-based Foundation are uniquely posed to continue to build upon the strengths already so firmly established here. My family and I look forward to being part of this vital community for many years to come.”
Gibbs holds an M.A. in Design from UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design and a B.A. in Film and English, also from UC Berkeley. She was a recipient of a Fulbright Memorial Teacher’s Fund travel grant to Japan in 2002 and served on the boards of several community organizations in Tucson and the Bay Area.
Posted: 2/21/2012