Western Oregon Journal

Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: Culture

Leta Edwards

As the term comes to an end, so does Leta Edwards' experience at Western. The Vice President for University Advancement and Executive Director of the Western Oregon University Development Foundation is retiring at the end of December after 16 years. When she arrived in January 1991, she only intended to work at the school for five years. Thankfully she extended her stay, and from her office located in the Cottage she accomplished a great deal.

One of Edwards' primary responsibilities is fundraising with the proceeds going to various areas for the school, including building the Hamersly Library, writing grants and putting money towards scholarships. This year approximately $600,000 will be distributed for multiple scholarships. When asked about her accomplishments during her time at Western, Edwards replied "Oh, my gosh, there's so much that our staff and our many volunteers have been able to do. We pretty much started from nothing. The foundation's assets were about $700,000 in 1991; today they're just a little over $11 million."

Apart from raising money for the school, Edwards and her team contribute much more to the campus and Western's community. The planning of Homecoming, communicating with alumni, creating WOU Magazine and keeping Gentle House available to the public are some of the other tasks under the reign of Edwards.

She has fond memories of her time at Western, one of her favorites being the creation of the Hamersly Library. She remembers this project required quite a lot of work, but the end result was rewarding. She says that the experience was "shall we say, crazy fun". Another perk is meeting all the alumni who have passed through Western's campus and keeping them informed on current events at the school.

The highlight for her, however, has been every year when graduation rolls around. "It just fills me with such happiness and satisfaction every time, knowing that I helped in whatever small way to make this happen for some of our students." She has found this aspect to be very rewarding and says that she'll miss this part of the job the most.

As for Leta Edwards' replacement, the search is still in progress to find some one to take on the position. Her future isn't planned out in detail at this point, but she says that she is looking forward to having some personal time. The job she has held for over a decade has been very time consuming and demanding, but she still says "it's also a heck of a lot of fun." •

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools