Wellesley College is pleased to welcome Sara Lehane as Senior Associate Director, Durant Society. Sara joins Wellesley from Yale University, where she served as Associate Director of Reunion Giving. In this role, Sara organized, recruited, and managed leadership and reunion committees and milestone campaigns. She also used her stewardship experience to solicit and secure leadership and major gifts from Yale alumni. Sara proudly established a virtual speaker series to keep reunion giving volunteers past and present engaged with the priorities of the university’s capital campaign. Established in early 2021, it continues to be a special engagement opportunity for Yale alumni to date.
Prior to Yale, Sara gained foundational development skills at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where her experience spanned from gift processing, major gift support, donor relations, special events, and finally campaign management.
In her new role as Senior Associate Director, Durant Society, Sara will work collaboratively across The Wellesley Fund team and the broader advancement division to develop and implement immediate impact giving acquisition, retention, and renewal strategies with a dual goal of increasing the number of donors and dollars raised. She will also manage the chair of the Durant Society, which recognizes the College’s annual leadership donors of $2,500 or more. Sara will play a pivotal role in soliciting alumnae for Durant Society level gifts to The Wellesley Fund, in collaboration with her colleagues across the development team. She looks forward to making an impact on current and future women leaders of the institution.
About Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a premier four-year liberal arts college for women located in the greater Boston area. Home to 2,350 undergraduate students representing 50 states and more than 87 countries, 49 percent students of color, and 17 percent first-generation college students, diversity and inclusion are a way of life at Wellesley. Wellesley’s motto, Non Ministrari sed Ministrare, captures the College’s mission to provide an excellent liberal arts education for women who will make a difference in the world. With a rich history, an established reputation for academic excellence, and state-of-the-art resources, Wellesley College provides its students with a comprehensive liberal arts and sciences education. Wellesley offers more than 1,000 courses across diverse academic disciplines and over 50 majors. Wellesley’s innovative career education model is designed to prepare and inspire students to craft a lifetime of opportunity and to reach their full potential.
Wellesley alumnae are leadership role models, including the late U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Chinese writer Bing Xin, Korean diplomat In-ho Lee, NASA astronaut Pamela Melroy, journalist Diane Sawyer, writer Nora Ephron, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first female presidential candidate to be nominated by a major U.S. political party.
Wellesley College is led by its 14th president, Paula A. Johnson, who assumed office in July 2016. For more information about Wellesley College, please visit https://www.wellesley.edu/
