Jill Ashton has been named director of development for the College of Liberal Arts and Human Science at Virginia Tech.

In her new position, Ashton will be responsible for overall fundraising efforts and the college’s strategic development plan.

“I’m so pleased to have Jill on board, and I look forward to what she’ll accomplish,” said Thim Corvin, Virginia Tech’s senior associate vice president for development and principal gifts. “Her experience in development and the passion she brings to the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and its mission are valuable assets.”

Ashton comes to the university with a wide breadth of development experience, most recently at Pennsylvania State University, where she spent five years as the director of major gifts for the school’s Smeal College of Business. There, she worked with donors and secured major gifts to the college.

Prior to that, Ashton worked in development at her alma mater, Florida State University, for seven years. She started as an annual giving development officer for the Florida State University Foundation before becoming director of development for the school of business, and later director of development for the graduate school and undergraduate studies.

Ashton has a bachelor’s degree in political science and art history from Florida State.

As a liberal arts major, Ashton said she’s excited to join the fundraising efforts of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech.

She said she was attracted to the position because of the diverse and accomplished backgrounds of alumni from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, which  has programs in the arts, humanities, social sciences, human sciences, and education.

Ashton said it’s an exciting time for the school, which welcomed a new dean less than a year ago.

“This is an extraordinary time for liberal arts in the sense that we have really exciting areas of study to promote," she said. "We have a dynamic faculty and staff who are passionate about teaching our next generation of leaders. This is why I became a Hokie.”

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.

Written by Annie McCallum
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