Vice President, Development and Alumni Relations

Alyssa M. Wilcox, senior vice president and chief campaign planning officer at Purdue University, has been named vice president for development and alumni relations at Penn State, effective January 13, 2025. Reporting directly to the president, Wilcox will be charged with strategically leading the University’s advancement efforts across frontline fundraising, alumni relations, event planning, major gift cultivation, corporate and foundation relations, and more. In this role, Wilcox will lead nearly 600 full-time professional staff members in the Penn State Alumni Association and the Office of University Development, engaging with the University’s more than 775,000 living alumni and friends to further Penn State’s land-grant mission. 

At Purdue, Wilcox managed a diverse portfolio, including the offices of industry partnerships, global partnerships and programs, engagement, external data analytics, and units reporting to the chief of staff. She played an instrumental role in attaining the largest philanthropic contribution in Purdue’s history: a $100 million gift from Lilly Endowment. She also served on the multi-organizational, interdisciplinary team that attracted a $4 billion economic development commitment to West Lafayette. Wilcox has participated in and helped spearhead six capital campaigns, each increasing in size, beginning with $100 million at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, in the 1990s to more than $2.5 billion at Purdue. 

Prior to her most recent roles at Purdue, Wilcox served as the president’s chief of staff and senior vice president for partnerships; as the senior associate vice president for advancement at the affiliated Purdue for Life Foundation; as the senior associate vice president at the Riley Children’s Foundation, the fundraising arm of Riley Hospital for Children; and as the assistant dean of development and alumni relations at Vanderbilt University Law School. Wilcox previously held roles at Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, the School of Pharmacy under the University of Connecticut Foundation, and Dana-Farber. 

Wilcox earned a master of business administration degree, with a concentration in marketing, from the University of Connecticut, and a bachelor of arts degree from Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. 

To read Penn State’s full announcement, please click here.  

Jack Gorman led this search with Nicole Poe and Lisa Clayton.