Working with administrators, faculty, and development staff, Southern Adventist University seeks to provide expertise, services, and tools to successfully connect and partner the university with foundations, businesses, and industry.

Corporations and foundations can provide generous financial support to the university by funding scholarships, fellowships, faculty positions, research institutes, centers, programs, classrooms, laboratories, community service projects, sponsorships, student and alumni activities and much more. We’d love to hear what ideas your team has for partnering with Southern.

When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.

Maya Angelou

Current Foundation & Corporate Partners

Connect With Us

Contact Staff

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    Geovanny RagsdaleDirector of Development 423.236.2472 gragsdale@southern.edu

    Geovanny Ragsdale oversees the development initiatives for Southern Adventist University where she works with current and prospective business partners and constituents. Prior to joining Southern, Geovanny served as regional vice-president of Latin American for SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise) where she worked with various corporate partners in the development and implementation of new national programs. A native of Southern California, Geovanny is fluent in Spanish and French. She graduated from La Sierra University with a B.S. in Business Administration and earned her Masters in International Business Management from EAE Business School in Barcelona, Spain.

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    Shana BrowneCorporate Relations Intern 423.236.2829 partnerships@southern.edu

    Shana is currently a senior at Southern Adventist University, studying nonprofit administration and mathematics. From Coral Springs, Florida, she is looking forward to working in a teaching role.

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    Lauren HalminenGrant Research Assistant 423.236.2489 halminenl@southern.edu

    Lauren is currently a senior at Southern Adventist University, studying nonprofit administration. Native Canadian from Taranto, Ontario, she is looking forward to working in a fundraising role.

Campus Resources

Corporate and Foundation Relations on Campus The Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations in University Development works with fundraising staff, deans, faculty, and program directors throughout the campus.

Build Corporate Relationships

Purpose: Programs and projects that encourage campus and community interaction enhance Southern’s mission to be a learning community that prepares students for “a life of service.” As Southern strives to build these programs it benefits from involvement and support from many sources—private, foundation, and corporate. The “Corporate Partnership” program provides the infrastructure to coordinate these essential relationships, as well as maximize and recognize their value.

Goal: To build strong long-term relationships between the university and public and private companies by helping to coordinate activities of mutual benefit into a “big-picture” plan of annual involvement and support.

Guidelines: Each Corporate Partnership plan will be customized according to interests, involvement, and level of support. Corporate Partners are special to Southern and deserve tailored treatment and benefits; however, the relationship with corporate partners, and students and employees will be consistent with Southern's Solicitation Policy PP-1190. Presentations by Corporate Partners on campus should have an educational purpose with sensitivity to the privacy of employees and students.

The customized plan for each corporation will be developed with key representation as appropriate from:

  • The corporation
  • University advancement
  • University academic administration
  • University faculty and students from the related school(s)/department(s)
  • Civic engagement, student services, and career services