Having recently joined the University of Miami to oversee the Donor Experience team, Tanya brings more than 15 years of experience working in the non-profit sector, particularly in the areas of alumni relations and fundraising, membership, global engagement, staff coaching, and supervision. Her current role focuses on donor recognition, traditional and innovative stewardship, and donor retention.

Prior to joining the University of Miami, Tanya led the Reunion and Class Giving team at the University of Chicago, with focus on annual giving efforts with college reunion alumni, peer-to-peer fundraising, volunteer management, reunion stewardship, and reunion event planning. Previously, she was a UChicago alumni community liaison responsible for regional volunteer leadership spanning more than ten states.

Tanya was a speaker for the 2021 Midwest Meeting of the Minds “Reunions and Class Giving Forum” and for the CASE District V 2019 conference, discussing best practices in campus collaboration. Having hired and developed advancement staff, she also served as an internal panelist with UChicago’s Central HR and ARD Talent Management teams in supporting fellow managers with strategies for cultivating diversity in hiring.

Earlier in her career, Tanya held key roles in young professional volunteer leadership development, member engagement, and corporate fundraising with Atlanta-based technical association TAPPI, Perimeter College (GPC) at Georgia State University, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While at GPC, she had the opportunity to speak on community college fundraising alongside colleagues at the CASE District III preconference in 2011. She got her start in development working as a community manager of Relay for Life campaigns with American Cancer Society in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A bilingual professional, Tanya also lived and worked in Latin America for nearly two years, serving as both a volunteer manager of staff for a faith-based facility in Nicaragua and an English education intern in Venezuela.

Tanya holds a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Language and Communication Media and a graduate certificate in Spanish translation from American University, a graduate certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a graduate certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace from the University of South Florida.