Bellarmine President Susan M. Donovan announced today that Scott Self, associate vice
chancellor of development and alumni relations at Vanderbilt University in Nashville,
will be Bellarmine’s new Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations. His
first day will be Oct. 17.
Self, a Louisville native, has more than 20 years of higher education development
experience at universities including Vanderbilt, The Ohio State University and Texas
Tech University. At Vanderbilt, he heads a development team of more than 100 and led
the university to a record fundraising year in 2019 ($195 million+) and its second-best
year in 2021 ($175 million).
“I am thrilled to be joining Bellarmine and President Donovan’s team,” Self said.
“I look forward to helping advance the mission of Bellarmine through meaningful philanthropic
partnerships. As a Louisville Highlands native, I have so many fond memories from
my childhood of attending Bellarmine sport camps. To have the opportunity to lead
the development and alumni relations efforts is absolutely the high point of my career.
I simply cannot wait to meet and work with members of the Bellarmine community.”
Dr. Donovan said that Self’s experience with transformative capital campaigns, alumni
engagement and corporate partnerships meshes perfectly with Bellarmine’s strategic
plan.
“The work of the Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations is vitally important
to Bellarmine’s future, and Scott Self is the right person to lead that work,” Donovan
said. “I know that he will further energize our existing donors and partners and create
exciting new relationships between Bellarmine and the community. And as a first-generation
college student himself, he fully supports our goal of keeping Bellarmine accessible
and affordable to as many students as possible.”
At Vanderbilt, where Self has worked since 2017, he led all university development
activities, including school/college development, athletics development, planned giving,
annual and reunion giving, family foundation relations, and campaign management.
He was a member of the executive management team that designed and implemented Vanderbilt’s
capital campaign and provided strategic oversight of Opportunity Vanderbilt, an undergraduate
scholarship and grant program that meets financial needs without loans. He also served
as the executive divisional lead for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts.
Prior to Vanderbilt, Self was the chief advancement officer for the College of Arts
and Sciences, the largest school at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, where
he led a staff of 20 advancement team members. During his tenure, the College of Arts
and Sciences set an annual fundraising record of $36.8 million in fiscal year 2016.
From 2008-14, Self served as senior director of development and alumni relations for
Texas Tech University’s Whitacre College of Engineering, expanding a team of three
to a staff of 10. He was responsible for stewardship and distribution management of
the college’s $120 million endowment and managed the college’s $200 million capital
campaign as part of Texas Tech’s $1 billion overall capital campaign.
Before moving to Texas Tech, Self was the director of development for the College
of Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Self has a bachelor's degree in public relations and psychology from Western Kentucky
University and earned a certificate in Leveraging Diversity and Inclusion for Organizational
Excellence from Stanford University.
He and his wife, Maureen Barnett Self, who is also a Louisville native, have three
grown children: Nick, Jack and Natalie.