Rice Names VP for Development and Alumni Affairs

Contact: Michael Cinelli
Phone: (713) 831-4794

Rice Names VP for Development and Alumni Affairs

Rice president Malcolm Gillis presented
today to the university’s Board of Governors Kathryn R. Costello as
the nominee for vice president for development and alumni affairs.
The board accepted the nomination with enthusiasm.

Costello, 52, was vice president for institutional advancement
at the University of Maryland at College Park prior to accepting the
Rice position. At Maryland, she coordinated a $100 million fund-raising campaign and reorganized the university’s entire
institutional advancement effort.

"We are extremely pleased that Kathryn Costello will bring to
Rice her extensive experience in the marketing of public and private
universities," said Charles W. Duncan Jr., chair of the university’s
Board of Governors. "Her success at organizing and managing fund-raising campaigns and alumni relations activities will help move us
forward in those key areas."

Costello returns to Texas after more than four years at
Maryland. She was vice president for public affairs at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas from
November 1986 through April 1990. She served as vice president for
university relations at Southern Methodist University (SMU) from
September 1982 through November 1986.

While at the UT-Southwestern Medical Center, Costello
coordinated a major fund-raising campaign for a new teaching
hospital and for endowed chairs. The university also secured two of
the largest individual gifts ever given to higher education-$20
million and $42 million-during her tenure.

"Kathryn Costello has demonstrated throughout her career in the
development and marketing fields that she can organize and manage
complex programs that produce results of the highest quality," said
Gillis. "She will be an integral member of our leadership team as we
continue to build Rice’s national and international visibility."

Costello earned a bachelor of arts degree in communications from
the University of Kentucky in 1963. She also holds a master of arts
degree in communications from the same university. She has done
additional postgraduate work at Kentucky and Vanderbilt University,
concentrating on public policy issues.

She began her communications career in 1960 at an FM radio
station in Lexington, Ky. She was named director of public affairs
for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 1975. She was named
associate vice president for university relations at Vanderbilt in
1980, a post she held until moving to Dallas and the SMU position in
1982.

Costello has received numerous civic and professional honors
during her career. She was included in a list of outstanding women
of Texas in 1983. She has won more than 75 awards from professional
organizations such as the Council for Advancement and Support of
Education (CASE), the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and
Women In Communications.

Costello is married to Daniel E. Costello, dean of the Merrick
School of Business at the University of Baltimore (Md.). The couple
has college-aged twin sons.

In her position as vice president for development and alumni
relations, Costello will manage the university’s fund-raising
efforts and its contact with its graduates. She will take on that
assignment for Rice on Feb. 1, 1995.

Rice University is an independent, coeducational, nonsectarian
private university dedicated to undergraduate teaching and graduate
studies, research, and professional training in selected
disciplines. It has an undergraduate student population of 2,572, a
graduate and professional student population of 1,375 and a full-
time faculty of 448.

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