Kravas Receives WSU Alumni Achievement Award

PULLMAN, Wash.–Connie Kravas, vice president for University Advancement at Washington State University, received the WSU Alumni Achievement Award at the Campaign WSU Recognition Dinner Gala Oct. 17 in the Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum.
She was cited “for superb leadership, vision and inspiration in the phenomenal growth and development of the WSU Foundation, culminating in the highly successful Campaign WSU.”
The award was presented by Michael C. Worthy, Seattle, a WSU Foundation Trustee.
Kravas led the university’s first comprehensive fund-raising effort, Campaign WSU, to which donors contributed more than $275 million for teaching, research and scholarship at WSU, and to provide greater access to higher education for WSU students statewide. Nearly 55 percent of all WSU alumni contributed to the campaign that began in 1990 and exceeded its goal of $250 million last summer.
In early July, Kravas was promoted to her present position from associate vice president for University Advancement. She now oversees the WSU Foundation, the WSU Alumni Association, and Advancement Services.
In 1978, Kravas was named associate director of University Development and played a key role in creating the WSU Foundation in 1979. As foundation president, she helped identify and recruit key volunteers, and cultivated and solicited major gifts from corporations, foundations and individuals.
The Portland, Ore. native holds a bachelor’s degree from Pacific Lutheran University, a master’s degree from Indiana State University and completed her Ph.D. in education administration and supervision at WSU in 1974.
Kravas came to WSU in 1972. She began her career path as a counselor in the Office of Financial Aid, and later was a teaching assistant and associate in the Department of Education. She spent two years with the WSU Graduate School, attaining the position of assistant director, Office of Grant and Research Development. She also was an associate professor of education, before being named vice-president of the WSU Foundation.
Kravas’s awards include the Centennial Alumni Achievement Award from Pacific Lutheran University, 1990; the “Outstanding Educator of the State of Washington” Professional Service Award of the Washington State Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1982; and Grant Research Award, 1973, from the WSU chapter of Phi Delta Kappa, education honorary.
She has served on the District VIII (Pacific Northwest and Western Canada) Board of Directors for the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, and has been a speaker at regional and national CASE conferences.
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