Dartmouth Leader Brian Lally Chosen to Head Philanthropy & Alumni Relations for U-M Health System

New Associate Vice President comes with proven track record of leading major fundraising efforts

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The University of Michigan has chosen a new leader for its effort to attract gifts to the U-M Health System – philanthropy that can fuel innovative biomedical research, advanced patient care and comprehensive medical and scientific education.

Today, the Board of Regents approved the appointment of Brian Lally, MBA, as the University's new Associate Vice President for Medical Development and Alumni Relations.

Lally will start at U-M on January 16, 2012, coming from the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Dartmouth Medical School, where he has recently helped lead an effort to greatly increase philanthropy for the academic medical center.

He will report to both Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D., the U-M executive vice president for medical affairs and CEO of the U-M Health System, and Jerry May, U-M vice president for development, and serve on their leadership teams.

"We are thrilled to select Brian to lead the philanthropic support of our strategic efforts in research, patient care and education, and to engage the tens of thousands of physicians and scientists across the country who have trained on our medical campus," says Pescovitz. "As federal research funding, reimbursement for patient care and state support for higher education all tighten at once, we can't overstate the importance of gifts and foundation grants of all sizes, and of a coordinated effort to engage donors."

Says May, "As our University prepares for its bicentennial in 2017, we must lay the philanthropic foundation for a third century that will surpass the success of the first two, and serve our nation and world in all areas of human inquiry. A strong Health System, with broad donor support, is crucial to that vision." 

In his new role, Lally will lead an accomplished program, working closely with the two leaders of the Health System's major units, Doug Strong, MBA, CEO of the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers, and James O. Woolliscroft, M.D., dean of the U-M Medical School. He will oversee plans to integrate development efforts across all areas of UMHS and lead the Health System to new levels of philanthropy over the next decade.

The Health System already attracts tens of millions of dollars each year from an exceedingly generous group of donors. In the most recent U-M capital campaign ending in 2008, donor gifts accounted for $740 million of the $3.2 billion University total. Philanthropic dollars support the Medical School through endowed professorships, scholarships and important research funds.

Major gifts from donors such as A. Alfred Taubman, William and Delores Brehm and those who have given to the new C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital have bolstered UMHS programs, enabled important research and supported training of future generations of investigators and caregivers.

Lally is currently Chief Advancement Officer for the Dartmouth academic medical center, a role he has held since the end of the university's last capital fundraising campaign in 2010. During that campaign, from 2000 to 2010, he held the title of Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations for the medical center and helped Dartmouth attract $256 million in gifts to its medical activities.

That campaign more than quadrupled the amount that the medical center and school had raised in the last campaign. During Lally's time as vice president, Dartmouth also greatly increased the percentage of medical alumni, faculty and patients who donated to fund medical activities.

Lally brought in the two largest gifts ever to Dartmouth medical initiatives, and has overseen organizational changes that have greatly increased the ongoing role of major donor volunteers and integrated development and communications efforts.

Lally came to Dartmouth after 18 years at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, including three years as director of development for individual gifts. A New York native, he holds an MBA from St. Johns University and an undergraduate degree in communications from Queens College. He is also a former air traffic controller and a father of four grown children.

SOURCE University of Michigan