Steve Ramirez

Background

About Steve Ramirez

Steve Ramirez has over 30 years of experience in the development field - the last 20 in higher education, where has been working to improve the financial strength and stability of universities through invaluable alumni, friend, and donor volunteer engagement and philanthropy. He has been in engineering fundraising arena since 2013, after having served as a development officer in various higher education fields of study that include the physical sciences, medical sciences, and social sciences. This experience suits him particularly well in his current position with UC Santa Barbara, home of one of the top 10 university engineering programs in the country and ranked the #1 public university in the world for engineering research citation impact (Leiden, 2015, 2016). He is highly regarded for his ability to find creative solutions to obstacles that hinder relationship-building between a university and its alumni and donors. Over the course of his career in higher education, he received two awards for excellence in the performance of his responsibilities. His down-to-earth style, clear sense of communication, and ability to match alumni, donors and friends with what they are deeply passionate about have been instrumental to securing invaluable volunteer engagement and increased philanthropic support. Steve believes that a university becomes stronger, more effective, and better with actively engaged alumni, donors, friends, and industry."Alumni have so much to offer. Not only financially, but also with their time, whether as mentors, guest speakers, board members, or with their corporate connections. Universities are full of activity on so many levels; my goal is raise awareness about how much their university and its students need them, then connect them to what they are passionate about."