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Apart from her upbringing and past career experience, Julie Klingler, new University of Findlay Director of The Wolfe Center for Alumni, Parents, and Friends, said she has many goals that make her the perfect person for the job.
Among those goals, Klingler explained, is to strengthen existing programming while creating and launching new programs and events as well as to engage with alumni in ways that advance UF’s mission and vision. Klingler works closely with the many organizations at UF, those like the Board of Governors and the Parents Executive Council, to help guide the direction and passion of their members, and, due to her past jobs with higher education, Klingler has a familiarity with programs like Lifelong Learning, which seeks to educate and enlighten folks aged 50 or higher through its educational value and relationship-building elements. Programs like these, Klingler said, help in “reimagining ways in which the Alumni and Advancement divisions will interact with, not only the University of Findlay community, but also all of our constituents, alumni, parents, and friends.” She specifically hopes to build both robust relationships and strong partnerships with alumni boards and councils and the City of Findlay and Hancock County, alongside providing leadership for the alumni team and collaborating with UF colleagues and campus divisions for overall University success.
Raised, in part, in northwest Ohio, Klingler knows her way around these parts. As the child of a military family, however, she also moved around a bit, and the combination of these two familiarities, she said, created a wide knowledge of both demographics and characteristics. What also helps is her former 25-year career as an airline attendant, for which she met countless personalities and oversaw other attendants as well. Through honing these skills on a micro level, she was able to set up the broader skills she’d need down the line for her work in both advancement and the dean’s office for Rhodes State College and OSU-Lima, prior to coming on at UF.
Interactions with donors and the philanthropic side of things are areas to which she feels particularly drawn, and, after refining the expertise needed for a career in higher education advancement at the previous institutions, Klingler feels like she’s well-prepared for the UF position. “With my background in annual giving, donor relations, and program management, this role fits me more than any of the other previous positions I’ve held,” she explained. “I’m excited to immerse myself into the UF culture of giving and philanthropy; the connections and relationship building. All of it.”