Today at May 29, 2015, we are conducting an interview for the Arizona
State University Retirees Association video history project. We are
located today in the ASU Community Services building. I am Leon Shell, uh
, former dean of students. The technical support staff today include John
McIntosh operating the camera, Lynd Van Sky, director and. Dave Schlotzley
, chair of the Video History Project. Please introduce yourself and uh
stating your name and your Position at ASU. I'm Susan Dalbert, and I had a
number of positions at ASU. I started actually working for uh Dean Shell
when I first graduated and student activities, and then I moved over to
high school college relations, eventually becoming the director of
undergraduate admissions, and then I was the executive director and
president of the alumni association.
I'm an Arizona person. I was born in New Orleans, but we moved here when I
was 415, so I went to. Rancholona Kindergarten, which is right in Phoenix
on Missouri and 7th Avenue and um actually it's between Central and 7th, I
think, but and then I went to Slono uh grade school, uh which is on 15th
Avenue in Missouri, and uh it went through 6th grade and that's where I,
um, got to be very close with our librarian, Mrs. Helene Carroll and then
I went to Grand View which was for 7th and 8th grade because Solano. I
didn't have a 7th and 8th, uh, and from there I went to Central High
School, and there weren't many kids from Granview who went to Central.
Most went to West High, so I had to again find new friends, but that was
good. That was really good for me um because again I was very shy and um I
needed to actually push myself a little bit. So I went to Central, um, had
a great experience there. I had, I'd say one of the most influential
teachers I had a couple of influential teachers I had. One was my 8th
grade English teacher. Who was really tough and taught me a ton and even
to this day I'm an incredibly
detailed editor and grammar is extremely important to me. It's kind of
fallen by the wayside sadly for me, but uh so I actually um have a strong
reputation for that, to being able to uh.
Really be a strong writer and editor, and I really attribute her beating
me on the head for that. And then I had a a high school chemistry teacher
. I took advanced chemistry and then I became his teacher's aide, and his
name was Arnold Bright, and he had a really big influence on me because he
was just so passionate about what he did and what I think the influence
was find that. You know, don't settle for something else. Find something
that you're passionate about because you could just see it in everything
he did, and I loved being his his student assistant chemistry, yeah. Bye
now. Yeah, um, but I, you know, I'm a curious person. I always say that,
and I think that's important in the business I'm in is you have to be
curious, particularly when you work in medicine, you know, if I, and I've
got to really want to learn science. I've got to love science, and if I
can't really talk to a benefactor about the role of immuno uh T cells in
immunotherapy, then I'm not gonna get anywhere. So, so yeah, so then I
went to Central, um. My mom really was insistent that we all go to college.
But I really was realistic to know that I. Even if I was admitted out of
state, I didn't want to graduate with huge debt, and I really felt like I
could get a strong education in the state. So that's, I limited myself
really to Arizona State and to RUA and as I said, I visited both campuses
and just felt so much more comfortable at ASU. I just felt like that was
the right fit for me, which it turned out to be.
The fall of 1970 and she convinced me to go through rush, which I did not
want to do, but I did, and we both pledged the Delta Gamma. That was a big
part of my college life as it turned out. I had a wonderful experience at
ASU. I knew I was really fortunate to go to college. I grew up in a single
parent home and so I decided to make the most of it, and you know, some of
this personally because I knew you in college, but Um, I was extremely
active on campus. President of my sorority president Linik helped start
the Student Foundation, was the first vice president for that, my first
foray into fundraising and lots of other things, and was still able to
graduate in 3.5 years, Phi Beta Kappa because I never wanted to let my
grades get affected. And when I graduated, you hired me. OK, I'm gonna
want to go back and retrace some of the steps here, but let's start back
when you were a student at ASU. I think you forgot to mention that you
were outstanding ASU woman student. You were outstanding penne and like
woman. You were outstanding, uh, graduate from the College of Liberal Arts
and Science. You were a student senator. You were a chief justice on the,
uh, Supreme Court there. So you were on the fast track.
So I had
and I would attribute a lot of this to my what we called then our pledge
moms. So I had a senior, her name is Shelly.
Who was my pledge mom, and she was terrific. In fact, I just had lunch
with her probably 6 months ago and uh she just kind of threw me in stuff
and I never had a date until I got to college and she set me up with, oh
my gosh, I had some really interesting dates, but it was so, it was so
good for me because I needed that. I needed somebody to just throw me into
that kind of environment. Um, I will say I did learn one thing. There are
a lot of men who say they're 6 ft tall.
Who are not. Somehow that seems to be a, um, the, you know, baseline for a
lot of guys. So I went on a lot of dates with a lot of guys who I could
eat peanuts off their head but they said they were 6 ft tall.
And then she encouraged me to actually get involved in some other things
too. She, she, you know, kind of forced me to run for president of our
pledge class and that kind of started everything. So she was really,
really a good influence on me. So my undergraduate degrees in political
science, Latin American studies, and so I took a lot of Spanish. I started
actually in junior level Spanish. If I'd known doing well on the placement
test meant they were gonna put me in Spanish conversation. I might have
missed a few more questions on that exam, but, um, but it was, yeah, so I
, I took a lot of Spanish and all upper divisions, so, um, my fluency has
dropped. Over the years, but I still speak Spanish to people and then my
master's degrees in communication with an emphasis on organizational
communication and my PhDs in public administration and the two areas that
I really looked at there were public policy and organizational development
, so it was a great fit for.
And I became the student activities advisor working with the sororities
and with all the women's honoraries which are no longer women's. I had a
great time there during that tenure. They were just starting a recruitment
program for ISU, and as you recall, they asked if I could help with that,
which I did, and then they created a full-time position to work with
Christine Wilkinson and Roger Swanson to build a recruitment program for
the university. I went over and did that and stayed there quite a while. I
did take a little brief time away from my issue and worked at Embry
Aeronautical University in Prescott where I I was in charge of a bunch of
things because it was such a small school and came back, worked in the
College of Engineering for a couple of years, and, uh, because that was
the only really thing available at the time, but I had a great experience
. I. Really learned so much when I was there and then Christine was able
to create an associate director of undergraduate admissions position and
bring me back to admissions and then when she was promoted, I was promoted
to be director of undergraduate admissions. Did that for 8 years. Dots
retired after 36 years as the in charge of alumni association. And I moved
over to that position. I was there for 8 years before I left the
university to go to Mayo Clinic. I went to Mayo Clinic and I was the chair
of the Department of Development and fundraising there. I was there for 8
years and then I was recruited away to Fred Hutchin's Cancer Research
Center in Seattle, Washington, where I was the vice president for
development there for 3 years and then was recruited to go to Rutgers to
start really. Um, a new program with a huge program with 14 units called
Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, and I've been there since
September. Well, let's go back and start again with part of your, uh,
experiences in undergraduate admissions, a highly visible position.
demanding position. And you held several several different roles there,
but could you comment a little bit on some of, uh, your highlights there,
some of your accomplishments, because I remember some of them, but, uh,
that, that's where you were during most of your career in the alumni
association, but back to undergraduate admissions. Sure, uh, that was an
absolutely wonderful part of my career. It was so rewarding and it's such
a happy time in people's lives when they're, you know, choosing a college
and coming to university and. So that was really enjoyable for me. There
were lots of challenges. I always said every year it was more, different,
better. We wanted really more students. We wanted more diverse students
and we wanted better academic students. And so there there were challenges
that were continual. I would say what I feel proudest of probably in that
experience was. Uh, I remember very clearly a meeting with the provost Mel
Gleck, and we were talking about how we needed to really, this was shortly
after I became director. I try and recruit more freshmen into the class
because our senior class was our largest class and it really didn't make
sense for a lot of reasons. There were a lot of really strong
underrepresented students who were starting at community college that we
felt should really have the university experience, uh, economically, the
way that we were funded through the state, it was not to our benefit to
have larger numbers of juniors and seniors and less freshmen and
sophomores, just lots of reasons. And so I worked on a program called
Shaping the Class where we really work to. Uh, build that, um. Issue is as
the destination for the top high school students in the state as freshmen
and hired a group of recruiters who actually went and spent time in the
high schools and my message to them was always, I want you to be that high
school counselor's best friend. If there's any questions about higher ed,
they should be calling you and it worked. So um our freshman class became
our largest class. We really inverted that pyramid and. I really do think
it was a launched to um help improve the academic uh reputation quality of
the university during your career at ASU, uh, you were there during how
many different presidents? Yeah, I was trying to think about that, um.
I can't remember the name of the president when I came as a freshman, but
the ones that I really worked with were John Schwata, Russ Nelson, 700, um
Laddie Core and and then a little bit of Michael Crowe.
Remember when we were really trying to concentrate on underrepresented
populations and as I recall.
Your years there, the increase was really substantial in underrepresented
students. Do you recall any of that was really pretty important to me um.
I don't know if you recall this, but so along with, you know, working
issue for so long and being an undergraduate, I um. Since I was working
there and I love school, I went ahead and got a master's degree and a PhD
, and my dissertation was really looking at access to higher ed for
underrepresented populations. So that's always been kind of a passion of
mine. And so yes, we really developed a lot of uh pre-college programs. We
actually had a unit in our office that was really dedicated to that to
really address that and try and identify and recruit the very top undered
students and also. Uh, provide access to any qualified underrepresented
students and, and provide the support that was needed. So that was, um,
again a very, very big priority for us in terms of more different and
better in terms of the top academic, uh, students getting them as I recall
that. The merit scholar program really increased during that period of
time also, and that was, that was not really me. I mean it was, I was
certainly part of it, but it was a really university wide effort and I
think the beginning of the honors college had a dramatic impact on that
when we were able to get it named by Craig and Barbara Barrett, that was,
you know, a big help for us in recruitment, uh, and really it was, I think
, um. Uh, both, uh this was during Laddie Core's, um, presidency and Milli
as provost. They both were just extremely supportive of that as well, and
we were, we really were second fiddle to, to UA, um. When I during most of
my career and I really just feel like it was toward the end that we
started to make an impact and I just I still receive all my ASU emails and
whatever and I just read again a notice about how many Flynn scholars
we've gotten and I tell you I just was beaming because when we started
we'd get a handful of the 20, a handful, and now we're getting almost all
of them. So I'm so happy. What was it? Ted Humphrey that started the
honors college at that time, and I worked very closely with Ted, yeah,
yeah. Because that was really a large bonus for the university and uh
brought in a lot of top students. What a thing to have on your resume that
you attended the honors college there. And, and I think it has an, I know
it has a national reputation. So, um, Rutgers has honors colleges and
we're just building this new honors dorm and honors residence, um, it's
which is beautiful and they just published something that was talking
about the, um. Increase in SAT scores at Rutgers for the honor students
and they had a group of about 6 other honors colleges that they used for
comparison and Arizona State was in that group of 6, and that made me very
proud.
Well, you were in some pretty high profile, uh, programs, uh, but let's go
to one of the top leadership programs or leadership positions, the alumni
association. You were the president director. Um, that was, uh, you know,
I once I ask you why you want to get a doctorate degree,
and I think that's one of the reasons I read that alumni association
position. Came open and you were an ideal candidate. I mean you had seen
hundreds of students coming to issue, hundreds of graduates going to issue
, and there had to be a lot of satisfaction and highlights in that
position. Might you cover some of those? Yeah, it was, I mean, again, that
was a labor of love for me. I'm a 3 time sun double and most of my career
was at ASU, so. Uh yeah, trying to get um alumni really feeling more
attached to the university was very important for me at ASU during the 70s
, uh it was a time of huge growth and a lot of commuter students and there
was really not a strong affinity to the, to the university. A lot of the,
my contemporaries felt as though we worked really hard and uh. Uh, we were
working, we went to school, etc. So trying to really find ways to attach
the alumni back to ASU and for me it was really focused on um. Letting
them know the really incredible upward trajectory that the university was
still taking and that really their degrees, the value of their degree was
increasing every time we made a gain in our academic and and overall
reputation. So it was really fun to try and strategize around that, uh,
the messaging that we gave to our alumni either through the magazine
through any kind of communication, uh, and the fun part and then just the
fun part for me was just, you know, getting to know alumni and. I just
read a retirement letter from a former colleague of mine, and he said when
he took his job, his goal was to shake the hand of every alumnus, and
while I never could have done that, it still was really rewarding to me to
meet and get to know as many as I could and I still keep in touch with a
really large number. You held several national positions as I recall with
the alumni association. Could you comment on that? I, I did both in
admissions and alumni. I just really got involved nationally and it was,
it was important for me because one of the reasons was that I had, you
know, I was born and raised a sun double and so if I was going to have any
kind of really innovation or um.
Uh, big kind of vision or you know really looking strategically where we
needed to go. I felt I needed to get exposure to other organizations and
to other universities, uh, because I had not had any other experiences.
And so getting involved nationally was allowed me to do that without
having to leave ASU. Um, so really my whole motivation was, you know, how
can I learn and do things that will help me advance whatever I was doing
at at ASU, whether it be in admissions or alumni. As I recall, was one of
the positions um being the membership chair of the Association, um, yes, I
mean, I was president of the Association of um admissions for public
universities. I, I did membership for them. I did, uh, I got very involved
with the council Alumni Association executives, um, so yeah, again, it
just, it gave me a lot of personal, um. You know, uh
Values back, but it really was also very much around how do I learn things
to make the association better and I've enduring friendships from those
organizations, particularly alumni, about 3 or 4 years ago, 8 couples went
and spent 2 weeks in Switzerland together, all former alumni colleagues of
mine, so we were able to develop really wonderful friendships along with a
lot of professional sharing. Probably one of the things I'm most proud of
there too is
because of my experience in admissions, I have really strong relationships
with all the academic deans and I really feel as though I worked hard to
continue to build those relationships so that they really understood the
importance of the alumni association and their alumni and the importance
of development and really their support for philanthropy. And
understanding how, how valuable that was and so that was one of my goals
when I went to in was to really, you know, build and strengthen those
relationships with the deans and I feel like when I left there they were,
they were, um, really strong.
You were involved in Raising funds for the renovation of Old Maine,
weren't you? Yes, Don Dotts was when he retired, he, he became our, our
chief fundraiser for that, but he and I worked really closely together on
that. He was a great partner and uh. Again, some of my, you know, people
that have become friends were, uh, donors to, to that, uh, renovation. If
you look at the major naming, uh, Ed and Nadine Carson, most wonderful
gracious people, Gary Anne and Diane Tucker, who still remain close
personal friends of mine, uh, John and Barbara Beverling still, you know,
personal friends of mine. So it was really pretty, pretty wonderful
experience. Um, we kind of laughed because Tom and I actually, my husband
and I actually named the, the kitchen break room in Old Maine because I
really wanted to do something that was, uh, that would have an impact on
the staff. So it was that doing that project was one of the most fun
things I've ever done. Um, I really was the project administrator with the
architect and Worked on doing picking, I mean some design stuff in all of
the fabrics, all the furniture that was again just really a wonderful
experience because I knew it was going to have just such an incredible,
you know, impact on our alumni, especially for a school like ours, um,
that grew so quickly and and didn't have a lot of traditions to be able to
take that significant historical building. And the university make this
declaration that alumni are so important that we're giving them the
centerpiece of the campus. I think it was just a really incredible message.
You see a lot of ASU license plates. Could you talk a little bit about
the medallion of Merit program that that was started before, definitely
before me. Um, it was really a pretty, uh, I think, wonderful program um.
Barry Earns is really the one who got it going, and he really pushed for
that. He was president or chair of the alumni association and uh very
active in that program and as I recall, he's he got the first ASU license
plate when that happened, um, but it was designed to actually put money
into a fund to award scholarships to outstanding Arizona high school
students, and we call that the medallion of Merit. It's had some changes
since I left when I left. It was really every high school in the state was
able to select one medallion of Merit student, but I think it's become
more selective and more competitive since I left. But it's so fun to do
the license plates, so everybody needs a sparky plate. So in your position
with the alumni association, there was the development part of it also.
And Going into that position was that seen as a major part of of your
position, or I don't think so. I don't think it ever had really had been,
but I was very interested in that. So, um, little did I know I was going
to end up with a career as a full-time fundraiser, but, um, you know, I, I
just was so passionate about the institution. It just seemed odd to me
that we, we weren't involved and there and a lot of alumni associations
there's this push pull with with development with fundraising and. I made
it clear to our staff that every one of us was was a development officer,
and I felt that everyone who worked in the foundation was an alumni
relations person. We're all in the same continuum. We just are in
different places. We're taking, we're taking our alumni from just
identifying ones that are interested in us, and then we're working through
to get them more interested and involved so that they will at some point
invest and if we aren't thinking about that. Then we're missing an
opportunity to really provide great joy to the individual and help for the
institution. So our job really was to marry that, to marry needs and
priorities for ASU with passions of our alumni. Probably had more contacts
with students than about any other position in the university. When you
look at undergraduate admissions, you guys used to have, I don't know how
many visits to campus, how many students came through your office, but uh.
That had to be a highlight, you know, there's no question about it. I
mean student contact you had unbelievably so, and I mean I could just
think of some students that just really had an impact on my life that um.
that I, I learned, I learned a lot from them. Uh, you'd crack up if you
saw how many Facebook friends I have that are former ESU students. It's
really kind of funny. I, uh, actually, um, one of the students that I'm
Facebook friends with just sent the most adorable picture of his little
girl, and I don't usually respond to a lot of Facebook um stuff, but I had
to write back and say, oh my gosh, John, you know, this, this is one un
adorable little girl, and it just made me really realize um how quickly
time goes, and I still think of this is John's name is John Malick. I
still think of him as 18 years old. And he's a dad and very successful. So
, well, some of these students you, you work with are now on the alumni
boards, the national boards, and then you go through that list and uh.
The most memorable moments you had at ASU. What a wise man. Frank Zackton
was just an incredible person. I, I learned a lot about
integrity, about how to treat people. Um, about really wise decisions to
not really jump to make decisions, but to really be thoughtful about
decisions. I also learned a lot in those same kind of um errors from Jack
Feaster. He was really a, a super person and the other another person
besides Lean and Christina I mentioned that I really learned a lot from.
Um Let's make me a little emotional. It's Alan Price.
Who was the um beef for advance but my boss um when I was in alumni
association and we uh maintained our friendship after I left ASU also he
left and uh as soon as Lottie announced he was retiring, Ellen started
looking. And he went to University of Oregon, was there for a number of
years, did a great job as their VP for advancement. He's really
responsible for the Phil Knight relationship with the University of Oregon
and with Oregon Health Sciences. So then Allen moved over from UFO to
Oregon Health Sciences, and you probably have heard I mean Phil Knight
just a few years ago gave them a $500 million gift for cancer before that
he'd given $100 million to CB. Allen did all that relationship and a few
years ago, Alan. He died and he was only 55 at the time and it was really
, really tragic, but he had a huge influence on me.
In a lot of ways he was just a really great person and I, I'm, I'm so I
talked to him maybe 3 weeks before he died and so. I really, I've had just
some great, great. Uh, people that I worked for that I learned so much
from. I've had a couple not so great too. I will say that. But Christine
and Anna Allen are all on the upside and Vic Trastick, my boss at Frank
Zackton was an amazing person. You'd see him walk down the mall, and he
had the most spring to his stick. Oh my gosh. I mean, you'd think he was
20 years old and he just exuded in enthusiasm and uh and he had a way of
making people really feel comfortable when you were around him, but what a
positive person.
Rank up at the top in terms of your memorable moments on a personal level
, I would say when I finally did finish my PhD um because that was. A
struggle because I was a director of undergraduate admissions at the time
and I say, you know, it took me longer to write my dissertation than I
wanted. I went through the coursework pretty quickly but um I, as I always
say, life interfered and so I took um. It took me a little longer than I
wanted, but I was determined to get it done. And what really I think about
that, so I got I was very, very close with Jim Brock, who was the baseball
coach here for 23 years, and he passed away and I had not finished my
dissertation. I was close, but I just hadn't pushed through to finish, and
he was always so encouraging to me about that and I felt so badly about it
that he died in July and I and I finished in December. I was determined. I
would just to get it done and. I dedicated my dissertation to him because
I really was so thankful, so that was a highlight, I think, really getting
that done. Yeah, your interest in athletics uh really helped, I think
overall in terms of the alumni association talking about coaches, a lot of
people didn't realize that Jim Brock had a doctorate degree, right? He had
an EDD.
He certainly did, and that's a coach. As an undergraduate, I think just my
entire undergraduate experience, I mean, I really feel like I just
maximized that whole experience. I wouldn't change a thing in my career at
AU, I think it was really having an impact on the profile of the student
body. Both flipping the inverted pyramid and really making a strong focus
on bringing underrepresented students into the population was a huge
factor for me and at the alumni association, I think it was just feeling
as though we were creating pride and being alumni was important. Also, you
might recall I got this crazy idea to. Everybody were goals of football
games and uh. Call it solid gold and got some of my friends um. From the,
the three football quarterbacks for three decades, Danny White from the
70s, Jeff from the 80s, and Jake Plummer from the 90s to actually do a
photo campaign for me to promote solid gold and And the students today
they're all go to the games and so I'm, I'm kind of proud of that. You
know, as I remember, you had contact with a former football player that
went out for the football team and encouraged him to come back to school.
Actually that was Danny. That was, so, um, and you know, we just became
really good friends. Uh, one of those things where the first time I met
with him, it was like we've known each other forever, but what happened
was he retired from football and had not quite finished his degree when he
left and was 9 hours short and he was talking to Frank Cush about it, his
former coach, and Frank told him he needed to talk to me. He he had tried
a couple of things and had at the university had not gotten very far, so
Frank said, you know, you should go talk to Susan. So he did and I helped
him get readmitted and Worked with everything. I met him on the first day
or the day before classes, walked him around to all his classes, so he
would, you know, know where he was going and what was going on, and, and
it just, it started a really great friendship that um. It was terrific and
he finished and I am really happy that he did because it would have been
really, really, uh. Sad thing if he was 9 hours credit hours short and
never finished the degree, so.
ASU at that time was tough for me. It was I
guess in my head I always thought I'd retire from ASU, but you know when
one door shuts, another one opens and it turned out to be a wonderful
opportunity for me. In so many ways professionally, I mean, I think it was
8 years I had with Vic Trastic I wouldn't trade anything for them. I
learned so much and I had a a urologist, Scott Swanson I worked with as
well, who was our medical liaison for development, and they called us the
Three Musketeers. I mean we just really had an incredible, incredibly
strong team and having the experience of the larger Mayo Clinic and
spending a lot of time in Rochester was also an experience I would never
want to give up so. I was really fortunate. This that job came open and
one of my best friends from college who I'm still really good friends with
is Pat Norris and Pat was a former alumni chair too but before me, but she
was one of my closest friends in college and um. She and I had lunch and I
told her I was you know. Going to be looking for a job and she a couple
weeks later her pledged daughter had been who I knew was the director of
rehab at Mayo and she saw this job and sent it to Pat. Pat sent it to me
and everything just fell into place. It was again meant to be. Gary Tucker
was a big supporter of Mayo and he was one of my references and so when.
You know that happened and then um. Just a number, a number of things. Don
Buffmeyer, I don't know if you know his name, but he was on the Flynn
Foundation board, uh, who I got to know very well. He was very involved
with Mayo. He was a physician. Uh, they all called, you know, Vic and said
, you need to hire this woman. And so I went out and met with them and
talked to them, and apparently Vicks, the story is that as soon as I
walked out, Vic said, how fast can we hire her? So it was just. It was
just supposed to be, it really was.
You mentioned earlier 3 different entities, major medical entities that
you had. Primary responsibility for fundraising. Let's start with Mayo
Clinic. Talk about Mayo Clinic, what you did there, what their goals were
for their fund drives. So yeah, Mayo Clinic was a great experience. Uh, so
I was responsible for fundraising for Mayo Clinic in Arizona, uh, but I
spent about probably close to a week a month in Rochester where Mother
Mayo is because really our fundraisers raised money for all of Mayo, uh,
wherever the research, wherever the program was that that the. A
benefactor was interested in if it was Jacksonville, if it was Rochester,
the first large gift that I raised, um, there was a $5 million gift, and
it went all to Rochester because the interest was really in multiple
sclerosis research and we had a researcher there doing some incredible
things and so um that's where it needed to go so we really raised money
everywhere uh and so the, the goals um were twofold. One was to really.
Increase the fundraising for all of Mayo Clinic, but also then to build
the fundraising program in Arizona because it had been a pretty nascent
program. There hadn't been a lot of emphasis on it, so it was really um.
Building a culture of philanthropy at Mayo Clinic, and I did it again
after my experiences at Arizona State. I knew that one of my keys in order
to be successful was to build relationships with physicians, and that
turned out to be true. I think a lot of our success and we were very
successful was due to the fact that we had a really incredibly strong
physician referral program. Our physicians got really good at um referring
patients to us that they knew had both capacity and an inclination and um
and we had to prove to the physicians that they could trust us and that we
were professional and that we would never jeopardize anything about their
relationship and once they saw that they jumped right in and that was
really incredibly rewarding and we were able to do a lot of really. Things
for patients. We really raised the money for a new building on the Phoenix
campus for our surgeons. We raised all the money for a beautiful
simulation center in the hospital. Those are a couple of physical things
that we did, but we also raised a lot of money for research. The two areas
that are always. The biggest research interests are cancer because
unfortunately it touches everyone and cardiovascular diseases because
everyone's desperately afraid of a heart attack. So those generally tended
to be ones that we raised more money for and that really really rewarding.
So I loved Mayo. I loved it because it was really diverse. The patients
were passionate. I'd be talking to a cancer patient in their family one
day about what they wanted to do, and the next day I'd be talking to
someone who It was loving life because he just had his shoulder replaced
and could play tennis again, so it really had some, you know, really nice
balance to it. What were the fundraising goals when you were there of Mayo
Clinic and, and how much was raised, do you recall?
Pretty much so we were, we were just starting a campaign, a quiet phase of
a campaign. It was the first campaign Mayo had ever done, so that was
really fun for me. There were very few people at Mayo who had had any kind
of campaign experience, and I'd been at ASU during a couple of our
campaigns and the last campaign I was more involved with because I was at
the alumni association, so I was an ex-officio member of the foundation
board, so I had some exposure and experience and so that was really fun
for me to help build that campaign so. We uh
Had a what at the time seemed like a big goal of $300 million and we
really blew past it, so it was exciting beyond $300 million yeah, which
today is nothing at Rutgers we just finished a billion dollar campaign
December 31st, and, um, billion dollar campaigns are really what people
are looking at now, so at least at least a billion dollars. It's crazy how
things have changed.
Let's move on to the Fred Hutchinson's Cancer Research Center. So yeah,
it's interesting. I was recruited up there. um, the, the reason I went a
couple of different things. Um, I was very, very close with the CEO at
Mayo Clinic in Arizona, Victor Trask, who's a uh cardiothoracic surgeon by
training, and he, um, announced he was stepping down. And they were going
to bring someone new in, and everyone knew that we had a really great
relationship and uh.
I got a call from a recruiter a couple of weeks later saying, I know you
never listen to these jobs yourself, but this is one you really should
look at. And so I was, I said, well, send me the stuff. So he did. So I
went home to Tom and I said, would you ever consider moving to Seattle?
And to my shock, he said yes. So I went up there to look at it and I was
just extremely impressed with the place. It's really the gold standard of
cancer research. It's just an incredible place with brilliant scientists,
and I thought, well, you know, let me do something wild and crazy and let
me give the new CEO an opportunity to hire his own person. Uh, as it
turned out, I worked with the new CEO for a couple of months, and he was
terrific. I think we would have worked really well together, but, um, I
went to Fred Hutch and really enjoyed Seattle. It's a beautiful place. Uh
, Fred Hutch is doing amazing things, but It wasn't diverse enough for me.
It was all cancer all the time and Mhm. It was tough. I mean, I'm a, you
know this, I'm a very classist half full person. I jump out of bed every
morning to get to work and I, I wasn't really feeling that. And so Tom
said to me one night, do you see yourself there for 5 or 7 more years? And
I went. No, I I really don't, so I decided maybe I should be open to look
.
I got a call about this debit records. And uh and over the years I've
gotten a lot of recruiters, not because I've been looking for jobs
particularly, but because they always call to want to know who do you know
and because I have pretty much a lot of national contacts. I always get
called and so he called and said, OK, I have the perfect job for you. This
one's for you. And so it was this job at Rutgers because it actually got
me back in higher ed, which I am thrilled to be back in higher ed. I love
that environment. And it kept me in medical fundraising, which is truly my
niche. I mean it truly is. It's, it's the most rewarding thing I've ever
done, um, and it was building a program which I've had to do before and
love, I love doing that. So, uh, it just seemed like, OK, let's do it. I
was ready for one more big challenge, um, and trust me. This is a
challenge. It's, it's a huge, huge job, lots of responsibility, but I know
I'll look back in 5 years and say, wow, you know, look what we're able to
do, and that's kind of my eye on the prize is being able to look back and
see what we build. How many different units do you work with,
so this is the area that I work in it's called Rutgers Biomedical and
Health Sciences. It was a result of the largest integration of in higher
ed. That ever occurred on July 1, 2013 when a former university of
medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey was dissolved and the units moved
into Rutgers, so there are 14 units, um, two medical schools, which again
is unique, um, the only NCI designated comprehensive cancer center in the
state of New Jersey. The state's only schools of pharmacy, dental medicine.
I've got again, I could go on, it's huge, so I'm really building the
entire program, um. From scratch, pretty much.
What, what haven't you done, uh, professionally that you still want to do
? Anything? Oh gosh I mean you've been through all these careers and
successfully through them. You know, I don't, I don't look back and regret
anything or think, what did I miss? I really don't. I I just feel like I'm
just always looking to, you know, make a difference and so I, I don't look
and say. What's not, I look and say, you know, what's here and what can I
do to accomplish that. So I, I, I, that's, that's not how I approach life
um doesn't sound like you have too much spare time. Oh my leisure time. No
, no, I still love to read. I'm, I just, that's my passion is reading, uh
, and I don't get to do enough of that leisure reading. I did get to read
on the plane last night. Uh, that flight is long, um, but it's, yeah, I
don't get to do enough of that. So I, I still like to read a lot. Uh, I
always tell a funny story. I ran into a woman when I was in my early 30s,
and she came up to me and said, this was when I was president of the House
Corporation board issue for Delta Gamma, and she came to a meeting and
came up to me afterwards and said, Are you Susan Klaus, which was my
family name? And I said, Yes. She said, Well, don't you recognize me? I'm
Mrs. Carroll, your grade school librarian, and I hadn't seen her since the
6th grade, and, um, I said, How in the world did you recognize me? And she
said, Well, honey, there weren't many children who spent more time in the
library than you did. And I thought, great, identified as a total nerd by
the 6th grade. Um, so yeah, so I've always loved to read. My mom would
laugh that one of my sisters and I would read the. You know, ingredients
on cereal boxes we didn't care what we read, um, so and then I still play
golf and those are probably the two things I enjoy the most. I, um, as you
know, I used to be a just a avid runner and um unfortunately I've
inherited some other things and some arthritis in my back that's now keeps
you from running, but I try and still keep, keep moving. Yeah, back to ASU
for a while.
When you first came they issue. Versus coming back now. What changes, what
monumental changes do you see? Oh gosh, there's so much, but I, I, and I
do keep in touch. I mean, I do really keep up with the university because
I'll, you know, I'll always be a sun double. But I'm incredibly impressed
with With I think how the national reputation has really improved, I think
that really Michael Crow's tenure has really, he's a
He's a risk taker and he's a visionary and it's paying off. I think I
probably am more aware of that because I I don't live here anymore and so
I do hear about Arizona State, but I'm always thrilled when I tell people
I'm an alumni and whatever that so many people in academia know ASU and
they know the term, the new American university and they you know know the
academic quality and so uh that it was not that way um when I left here.
You know, we were watching TV Sunday and um one of the national. Analyst
was talking about President Crow's new book. And, and this is a really
esteemed, uh, analyst, and he was talking about, you know, how Michael
Crow has made higher education more affordable and uh. You've probably
noticed big changes in terms of the amount of funds that we bring in from
the grants and. Of course it's a real goal of the university. It has to be.
I mean it really does have to be, and you know we we talk about this all
the time that we we really aren't state institutions anymore. We're state
assisted at best and maybe state affiliated at worst, so it's really put a
lot of pressure I think on on higher ed in general and I think ASU has
done a really remarkable job of looking for additional funding sources in
order to keep education more affordable. You know it's frustrating when
our state constitution says that you know that that really higher ed
should be as close to zero as possible for our students and to to see that
it just continues to to be eroded again, a major erosion this year so um
you know that's concerning, but again that's a national issue. I was just
meeting with um. Uh, a female faculty member at Rutgers yesterday who is
in a leadership program and we were talking specifically about this,
what's what will higher ed look like in, you know, in 10 years and it's
gonna be interesting to see if, uh, there's, you know, if, if, if a state
institution now gets 15% of their funding from the state, that's pretty
high and so there are. A number that are 10 or less and so if what's gonna
happen if we lose all that it's it's, it's a scary time and um but I will
say that I feel as though uh ASU's positioned itself very well to be able
to weather that um. I don't think, I don't think all higher institutions
will survive it. Yeah, so when, when Mayo decided to put a medical school
here, I really wanted us to, uh, try and get bring ASU in on that for a
lot of reasons. Number one, because, um, I really wanted ASU to get the
benefit of that affiliation. Uh, the one thing that always drove me crazy
, uh. As director of admissions and even subsequently was the fact that so
many of the really good pre-med, almost all the really good pre-med
students in the state felt they had to go to UFA because that's where the
med school was, and it made me nuts because it didn't, that didn't have a
beans difference. It was how you did in your coursework and how you did in
the MCAT. So the fact that if we could really get a close affiliation with
Mayo Clinic, I just felt it was really going to be helpful for us to get
some of those really strong pre-med students to stay here.
Do you still keep up with a lot of these students? I do. I do. I
definitely do. As I said, I've got a ton of Facebook friends that are
former students. I am linked in with a ton of former students. I mean,
another example would be Amy Golden, who, who I, you know, worked with a
lot as a student and who's now an assistant dean of students here. She
left, went and, you know, got a doctorate, um, and lived in in Georgia for
a while and came back and it's really wonderful to see her back here. So,
you worked with the, uh, leadership scholarship program, some of the
students and. The most recent edition of, of the newsletter or of the
magazine has, do you remember Tom Adjay? Oh, very well, he's, he's
featured in this most recent newsletter. I remember recruiting him. In
fact, he, he got one of the largest uh. Payouts from the cigarette
industry, I think over $300 million at least that's what the newsletter
said. I just read it last night. I haven't read that yet, but I will, so
that's that's really great. I love to keep up with them again, I've got a
ton of them on my Facebook and LinkedIn, so. It is, it's fun to kind of
see what they're doing there. The success of the leadership scholarship
students is incredible. Pat Norris is now a judge, isn't it? Pat? Yes,
she has been. She's a superior court judge, and let me tell you, she was a
partner at Lewis and Roca for a long time and really was ready to give
that up and, and had always had in the back of her mind she wanted to be a
judge. um, and let me tell you, she is absolutely perfect for the role.
She is a very wise, fair. Person,
when we were in school, I would borrow her notes because she would take
incredible notes. She would have them highlighted. She would use color
coding. She'd put notes in the margin, so I literally would would look at
her notes before a test and boom, that was all I needed. You know the
interesting thing is that you work for Christine Wilkinson. But then when
she became alumni
director I know it's a she came to you and you helped her on your house
yeah
yeah so there's a relationship there, yeah, we still keep in touch and
there have been a number of times she's um called me or emailed me and
said, Hey, do you remember this? or can you give me some background on
that, or, um, you know, what do you think we should do about this? So yeah
, I mean, I'll do anything to help AS issue at any time in any way. So you
would back to ASU.
Well, I actually got a call, um, last year, uh, about a position at the
foundation and, um. I'll be honest, I, I would definitely have considered
it, but I had already accepted this Rutgers job and
felt like I had made that commitment #1, and number two, the salaries here
were really not competitive at all. They were offering so much less that.
it's health care philanthropy is in a different kind of
Scale, so it'd be hard to go back from that. Although at some point, you
know, when I'm done building this program, I don't want this kind of a job
anymore. I mean, I'd like to have a job where I could just raise money and
just go out and build relationships and not have this incredibly complex
management piece to it. We talked about incoming new students to really
get involved in campus life. And you obviously did, but um, What kind of
advice would you have for students coming in now in terms of campus
involvement? I still think it's hugely important. I think one of the huge
advantages to ASU is that you can do anything and be anything and because
we do have that breadth and depth and so really think about you know what
what your values are, what your interests are, and then pursue that
because you're going to find anything that you want here and you're
missing a great opportunity if you don't take advantage of that. I really
didn't realize that. I kind of fell into it in some ways. I mean, I was a
little bit involved in high school, not that much, because again, I came
from a single parent home and I had family duties with my younger siblings
, so I couldn't do a lot of after school school things, but I was really
obviously a good student and um. So when I came to SSU, I kind of fell
into that and I was really shy when I, when I came, believe it or not, uh
, I tell people I'm a trained extrovert, um. Which I think is really true.
So I would say just don't be afraid and just step out there and look for
the things that you think are going to give you some. Uh, really, um.
Learning experiences and you know build you as a person. I tell people
all the time who I am as a leader and a manager, so much of that started
as an undergraduate so much of that it gives you an opportunity to to
learn and to model and to identify mentors and make mistakes and you know
I've learned this much from people um that I've worked for or worked with
about what I wanted to be, um, but also what I didn't want to be. So
unless you put yourself out there, you're not gonna be able to have those
experiences and they're gonna stay with you. I mean, as I said, a lot of
the stuff that I learned was when I was 18 and 19 years old.
Well, you never steered away from challenges. I mean, to be in development
in different aspects.
It's not a very comfortable field. I wouldn't think all the expectations.
No, it is. I mean, it is. I mean, honestly. If you if you're passionate
about, you know, your mission, and again. I tell everyone, um, you can't
create philanthropic intent in anyone, and I had a fundraiser who worked
with me at Mayo Clinic who said to me one day, you know, I've just learned
that there are givers and takers in this world, and our job is to find the
givers. So if you really just look at that and you don't take things
personally, um, either people aren't philanthropic or they have other
interests already, they support their church. They support environmental
issues. They have 17 grandchildren that they've committed to put through
college, whatever it is. So it's just finding those people who are
passionate about your mission and giving them an opportunity to do
something that's going to make them feel good about it. And so when I look
at our goals, they're really based on. On reality, you know, there's
there's an art but also a science of fundraising and so. If people say, oh
, I'm really intimidated by our goals and whatever, then they haven't
really looked at the science part. um, you know, interestingly, uh, even
though I'm all of my degrees were more in the social science area, I'm
really a data person. um, when I've done kind of these work style things,
I always come out as on the analytical side as one of my stronger,
generally the strongest, and so, uh. When we're, when we're looking at
that, when we're setting goals for when we're setting metrics, it's really
all based on real information. So you know, people who say they're
intimidated by that then. either haven't done their homework or Don't
really like raising money.
You've already had an outstanding career at ASU and beyond.
So, you could have, uh, stopped and counted your blessings after you left
ASU, but uh, you're you're still at it and still many, many years at it, I
guess. Yeah, you know, we'll see. Um, my husband is older than I am and so
he retired last year and, and so everyone why don't you just retire, but
I'm not even close to that. I mean, I spent, I took a week off, and Over
the holidays and I couldn't wait to get back to work. Oh my gosh, I
thought I was gonna. Go crazy. So it's, you know, I mean Tom, my husband
was a real huge, huge successful working person, but he knew. I mean he
knew when he was ready to retire and that's I guess what I feel like too
and one day I'm going to wake up and say, OK, I'm ready, but I can't
imagine when that is. I made a 5 year commitment to Rutgers. I know I'll
do at least that, and then we'll see from there. You did a lot of
consulting with major universities. I, I have, I haven't for a number of
years. I just got kind of burned out by that. I was traveling enough for
my jobs and I just, I didn't but I enjoy that. I would, you know, again
when I retire I probably wouldn't mind doing some more of that, but um
right now I've got, you know, so much to do to build this program that I'm
in that I'm not, I'm turning everything down, um. But yeah, I do. I like
that. I mean, gosh, what's a better job to be a consultant to go in, look
at everybody's problems and tell them how to fix them and then you leave.
Well, anything else you'd like to comment on, uh, during your just that,
uh, career and gosh, you know, as you gave me my career, um. Not just some
academic training, which was great, but just I think just in all the
opportunities both as a student and as a as a staff member here to um make
some mistakes and to learn from mentors like uh Leon Shell and Christine
Wilkinson, Roger Swanson um. And I just think You know we need to pay it
forward. Well, thanks for letting us talk with you and interview you. Sure.
Oh yeah, yeah, you know what, our heart's still here. I mean, it kills me
to not go to not go to ASU football games. We still have our football
tickets. Oh yeah, we're not giving them up because we want them when we
retire when I retire. Oh, well, this is why I'm not giving them up. I, I'm
on the first row of the loge and um. Probably like the 45 yard line, yeah
, on the west side, so we're not giving those up.
Charlie. Oh sure, yep, Charlie and I are, yeah, we're, yeah, we're
LinkedIn friends and yeah, Charlie's great. She's really great. I still, I
mean, honestly, I'm, I have to say I haven't been here since 200, I don't
even know, 2002 maybe, so I'd have to look at my resume, but, um, uh. Oh
you mean Yeah, yeah, I haven't been helped us out with a program at the
clinic. Yeah, sure, but you haven't been, yeah, I remember that, but I
haven't been, um, at ASU since I think 2002, and it's amazing how many
people I still keep in touch with. Yeah, so it was such a big part of my
life. Yeah, thanks. There are lots of things I miss really, but let me
take this off.