Contact: Harriet Laird
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Two professional staff members within the Mississippi State University Foundation are receiving promotions to lead key fundraising areas at the institution.
Alumnus Brett Aldridge has been named the new director of development for the College of Education, and Barbie Hampel will now direct the university's annual giving program. Both began their duties July 1.
As education fundraiser, Aldridge will work with the dean's office and seven departments of the academic unit that is a member of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
Most recently, Aldridge was assistant director of development for Mississippi State's James Worth Bagley College of Engineering and previously held a similar position with the university's Division of Student Affairs. Before joining MSU, Aldridge, a 2005 MSU communication/public relations graduate from Pensacola, Fla., was an account executive with BellSouth in Birmingham, Ala.
"Brett has done a great job advancing university units, and we are confident he will continue to do an outstanding job as he leads the effort to secure private gifts in the College of Education," said Bo Hemphill, executive director of the MSU Foundation.
Aldridge assumes these duties from fellow MSU alumnus and Starkville resident Rob Jenkins, who will devote his time to development activities solely for the College of Arts and Sciences.
Hampel will be responsible for securing annual gifts for the university through direct marketing efforts. Since 2006, Hampel has served as coordinator of the MSU Foundation's telefunding program.
"Barbie brings substantial experience to her new role. Having been a part of the MSU Foundation operation for five years, it was a natural progression for Barbie to assume leadership of the university's annual giving program," Hemphill said.
A Hatton, Ala., native, Hampel holds a bachelor of arts in psychology and a master's degree in public policy and administration with an emphasis in human resources from Mississippi State.
As annual giving director, Hampel will continue to oversee the university's Bulldog Calling Center that employs some 30 MSU students to make telephone solicitations of alumni and friends. Callers also update database records for the institution's alumni and friends.
Annual Fund support also directly impacts Mississippi State's standing in the U.S. News and World Report's "America's Best Colleges" rankings. A major criterion the publication uses to determine a university's score is alumni satisfaction, which is measured by the percentage of alumni making consistent annual fund contributions.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.