Dierdre Konar

Background

About Dierdre Konar

From a young age, Dierdre Konar knew that she wanted to effect change in order to make a positive difference in people’s lives. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Babson College, Dierdre has enjoyed 20+ years of experience in non-profit management and professional fundraising. She holds a master’s degree in arts administration from Drexel University and spent the first chapter in her career at Musicopia, a non-profit music education organization in the Philadelphia region. Dierdre has the distinction of being Musicopia’s first full-time, paid employee, and the organization quintupled in size during her tenure. While serving in a variety of roles at Musicopia, including Managing Director, Dierdre oversaw program and community development, event management, individual giving and stewardship, grant writing and reporting, and technical administration. Dierdre then moved to the Advancement office at Swarthmore College, a small, private liberal arts institution just outside of Philadelphia. She started at Swarthmore as a member of the leadership giving and gift planning team, where Dierdre helped more than 200 alumni and parent donors make an impact and effect positive change at the College. While serving as the Director of Advancement Systems at Swarthmore, Dierdre solved problems, developed opportunities, and created meaningful connections between students, alumni, parents, and colleagues both in Advancement and throughout the College. She is currently the Executive Director of Strategy and Planning for Advancement. In her free time, Dierdre enjoys laughing, reading, skiing, singing, and dancing with her two young children and her husband and high-school sweetheart. Dierdre is also an active volunteer in keeping her community safe, her children’s schools vibrant, and teaching religious education at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County. Since it’s founding, Dierdre has served on the Professional Advisory Board of NF2 BioSoultions, a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating gene therapy research for neurofibromatosis type 2. In this role, Dierdre serves as a volunteer consultant to both the president and vice president of the organization by strategizing on fundraising, events, and technical administration.