UR Employee Learns by Doing in Administrative, Frontline and Executive Roles over 40 Years

By: Jessi Wilson

Patty Wang began her 40-year career at the University of Maryland as an administrative assistant in the development office of McKeldin Library and ended it as executive director of the Office of Gift Planning. Throughout all the changes in her tenure–impressive in both length and heights reached–her mission has stayed the same. “In development, we help nice people do nice things for other people,” Wang said. Her words captured the spirit of University Relations so well, Annual Giving once used them in a campaign.

Wang credits this dizzying career trajectory to the encouragement of her supervisors in UR (though it had several different names throughout her time at Maryland). Her journey has taken her from support to frontline to executive positions. “I'm an example of learning by doing,” she said.

At McKeldin, her role included “purchases, Friends of the Libraries, newsletters, publications, alumni relations, which was a great educational experience albeit baptism by fire,” she said. “I learned: What is development? How does it work? How does philanthropy make a difference to the Libraries?” With this knowledge and her “people-person” personality, she became a front-line fundraiser in what was then the College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, now CMNS. After several years, Wang moved to a central position where she appreciated the “high-level agnostic” perspective it gave her on university priorities. She stayed in central positions until the end of her career. Her move to the Office of Planned Giving (OGP), though, was an opportunity that came her way rather than one she sought out. 

When she was asked to consider transitioning to OGP, her instinct was to say, “I'm not an attorney, I'm not a financial planner. I don't have a wealth management background.” Brodie Remington, vice president of UR at the time, told her that UR would provide all the training she needed. “He said, ‘You have history here. You have relationships and I can't buy that,’” she said. 

Wang tells people getting started in this field, “I'm living proof that you don't necessarily need to possess all the credentials or acronyms after your name to be successful.” She went on to point out that while real-time planned giving work can close the learning curve, continued professional development is essential to learn best practices and for career advancement.

She has the same sanguine perspective on the field of development in general. “It is a world where people with many different personalities can all be successful development officers,” she said. “We just have to build relationships and discover what motivates people to give.”

Fundraising has changed over the course of her career, particularly in recent years, she acknowledged. “We have really important alumni and friends’ support. People who ‘bleed red.’ They'll step up for Maryland, no matter what, in good and bad times,” she said. A shift, however, is happening with transformational gifts. “People with a high capacity to give are looking for problem solvers to alleviate today’s big challenges. They’ll say, ‘I’m concerned about sustainability and global warming, and Maryland has a great interdisciplinary initiative, so even though I’m not a graduate I plan to focus my philanthropy on that program.’”

And UMD is well positioned for such a shift. “There's excellence overall, as well as pockets of excellence here,” she said. Over the course of four decades, she has witnessed the university’s ranking steadily rise up to this year when it reached its highest yet at #16 for public universities and was named a “Public Ivy” by Forbes magazine. 

These accolades have also set up the university for success in Forward: the University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless. Wang is optimistic about the Forward campaign for another reason, too. “There was a very concerted effort to include everyone in the Maryland community in the campaign. The positive vibe is out there, and people are aware of the Forward campaign and excited to contribute either through advocacy, volunteering or private support.”

While many things have changed in Wang’s 40 years, Maryland has stayed Maryland in the best way. “We are somewhat unique in that many of our presidents, provosts and university administrators have spent their careers here. Their collective experience and institutional knowledge power Maryland’s success,” she said. “What’s really special about Maryland is that people care–about each other and about the university.”