Katie Aune Email & Phone Number

I am a former tax attorney and mission-driven development professional with more than 17 years of experience in nonprofit and higher education philanthropy and alumni engagement. As the Director of Philanthropy for Kenya's Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, I lead the major gifts team and am responsible for building philanthropic support from individuals and family foundations in North America. Prior to joining Lewa, I spent nearly six years as the chief development officer for the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism, where I quadrupled the college's fundraising revenue and oversaw a significant expansion of alumni engagement activity. I also previously served as the inaugural development director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a planned giving officer for National Geographic and director of alumni engagement at Chicago-Kent College of Law.I am an avid traveler and writer with a passion for wildlife conservation and inspiring/enabling others to travel. Despite not traveling overseas for the first time until I was 25, I have been to more than 70 countries and all seven continents. I published my travel memoir, Finding Katya: How I Quit Everything to Backpack the Former Soviet States, in May 2023, which chronicles the year I spent traveling through all 15 former Soviet states in 2011-2012. Learn more at katieaune.com/book.

Listed skills include Fundraising, Social Media, Newsletters, Editing, and 25 others.