MEDIA CONTACT: Linda Holtz
561-297-0159, lholtz@fau.edu
FAU Names Shirley Peltz Gerzon
Director of Development for FAU Libraries
BOCA RATON, FL (September 1, 2005) -- Florida Atlantic University has named Shirley Peltz Gerzon director of development for FAU Libraries. Serving as a member of University Advancement, Gerzon will be responsible for all fundraising activities for FAU Libraries. Gerzon comes to FAU with 10 years of annual and major gifts fundraising experience. In addition, Gerzon helped create documentaries for classroom use through VOICES & MEMORIES, a non-profit organization that she helped establish. She has co-produced industrial, commercial and educational videotapes, including the new, as yet unreleased documentary The Olympic Doll.
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and raised in New Jersey and New York, Gerzon most recently served as director of development for Kehillah Jewish High School of Silicon Valley in San Jose, CA. The private college preparatory high school was only in its second year when Gerzon headed its development program. Coordinating marketing initiatives, the annual fund, major gifts, special events, public affairs and grant writing, Gerzon was also responsible for all aspects of the school's strategic fundraising plan.
As director of development for Edgewood Center for Children & Families in San Francisco, Gerzon's research and cultivation efforts led to individual and foundation gifts totaling more than $700,000.
Gerzon also was the director of development and marketing for the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, CA, where she was responsible for leading a capital campaign for a new, state-of-the-art facility in the downtown arts district of Berkeley, and successfully garnered a National Endowment of the Arts grant. From 1995 through 2000, Gerzon was the assistant regional director for the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science, first in Palm Beach, FL, and later transferring to the Weizmann Institute's regional office in the Bay Area. She was part of the Institute's Jubilee $250 million endowment campaign and, as a member of the development team in San Francisco, helped to increase donations from $1.5 million to more than $12 million in two years.
Returning to South Florida, Gerzon is eager to help FAU Libraries continue to provide students, faculty and the community with extensive and varied collections and unparalleled opportunities for academic research. Gerzon holds a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Queens College and has done post-graduate work in fine arts at the New School for Social Research and the San Francisco Art Institute. She is a former advisory member of the Holocaust Center of Northern California and was an interviewer for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.
"We are delighted that Shirley has joined our department," said Deborah Robinson, associate vice president for University Advancement. "The depth and breadth of her experience as a development professional and her personal commitment to higher education make her ideally qualified to meet the challenges of this position. I think that with her background as a documentary film and video producer, Shirley will bring a new and interesting dimension to our team of fundraisers."
-FAU-
Florida Atlantic University opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the university serves 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students on seven campuses strategically located along 150 miles of Florida's southeastern coastline. Building on its rich tradition as a teaching university, with a world-class faculty, FAU hosts eight colleges - the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, and the Colleges of Business, Education, Engineering & Computer Science, and Architecture, Urban & Public Affairs.
