Bellarmine President Susan M. Donovan announced today that Scott Self, associate vice chancellor of development and alumni relations at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, will be Bellarmine’s new Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations.
His first day will be Oct. 17.
Self, a Louisville native, has more than 20 years of higher education development experience at universities including Vanderbilt, The Ohio State University and Texas Tech University. At Vanderbilt, he heads a development team of more than 100 and led
the university to a record fundraising year in 2019 ($195 million+) and its second-best year in 2021 ($175 million).
“I am thrilled to be joining Bellarmine and President Donovan’s team,” Self said. “I look forward to helping advance the mission of Bellarmine through meaningful philanthropic partnerships. As a Louisville Highlands native, I have
so many fond memories from my childhood of attending Bellarmine sport camps. To have the opportunity to lead the development and alumni relations efforts is absolutely the high point of my career. I simply cannot wait to meet and work with members
of the Bellarmine community.”
Dr. Donovan said that Self’s experience with transformative capital campaigns, alumni engagement and corporate partnerships meshes perfectly with Bellarmine’s strategic plan.
“The work of the Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations is vitally important to Bellarmine’s future, and Scott Self is the right person to lead that work,” Donovan said. “I know that he will further energize our existing
donors and partners and create exciting new relationships between Bellarmine and the community. And as a first-generation college student himself, he fully supports our goal of keeping Bellarmine accessible and affordable to as many students as possible.”
At Vanderbilt, where Self has worked since 2017, he led all university development activities, including school/college development, athletics development, planned giving, annual and reunion giving, family foundation relations, and campaign management.
He was a member of the executive management team that designed and implemented Vanderbilt’s capital campaign and provided strategic oversight of Opportunity Vanderbilt, an undergraduate scholarship and grant program that meets financial needs without
loans. He also served as the executive divisional lead for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts.
Prior to Vanderbilt, Self was the chief advancement officer for the College of Arts and Sciences, the largest school at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, where he led a staff of 20 advancement team members. During his tenure, the College of
Arts and Sciences set an annual fundraising record of $36.8 million in fiscal year 2016.
From 2008-14, Self served as senior director of development and alumni relations for Texas Tech University’s Whitacre College of Engineering, expanding a team of three to a staff of 10. He was responsible for stewardship and distribution management
of the college’s $120 million endowment and managed the college’s $200 million capital campaign as part of Texas Tech’s $1 billion overall capital campaign.
Before moving to Texas Tech, Self was the director of development for the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Self has a bachelor's degree in public relations and psychology from Western Kentucky University and earned a certificate in Leveraging Diversity and Inclusion for Organizational Excellence from Stanford University.
He and his wife, Maureen Barnett Self, who is also a Louisville native, have three grown children: Nick, Jack and Natalie.