ALEXANDRIA, Va., September 30, 2003 -- PBS has promoted Elizabeth Suarez to Vice President, Development. An experienced fundraising leader who has served PBS member stations for more than seven years, Ms. Suarez will report directly to Wayne Godwin, PBS Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
PBS Development is dedicated to supporting the needs of development professionals at PBS stations across the country. In her new role, Ms. Suarez will serve as the primary staff liaison with the Development Advisory Committee, a group of public television development professionals who work with PBS on a variety of issues, projects and events. She will also manage corporate support activities, which focus on providing services that help stations to secure corporate underwriters in their communities. Ms. Suarez will continue to manage the creation and development of tools, services and training for PBS member stations.
"The ideas and innovations that Beth has brought to PBS' development efforts warrant recognition and a broader platform to expand her role," said Mr. Godwin. "Her proven experience, leadership and commitment to public television stations make her an extremely valuable asset to our senior management team and to all of our stations."
Ms. Suarez joined PBS Development in 1996 as Director of Individual Giving and was promoted to Senior Director of Individual Giving in 2000. She currently serves as a member of the cross-disciplinary PBS Membership Reinvention team, focusing on new ways to cultivate a more complete, holistic membership experience, with the goals of increasing number of members, increasing membership revenues and tapping new pools of members. In this role, she has worked directly with pilot stations in the identification of station-specific priorities, and in the implementation of detailed work plans to achieve these goals.
Before coming to PBS, Ms. Suarez served as Director of General Appeals with the National Trust for Historic Preservation from 1990 to 1996. In this position, she managed fundraising activities directed toward National Trust's 265,000 members. She was also involved in collaborative work with state and local preservation organizations to build fundraising capacity at the local level.
Ms. Suarez began her fundraising career in politics, serving in various capacities for eight years. From 1987 to 1990, she was Director of Direct Response and Major Giving Club Programs with the Republican National Committee and was responsible for all fundraising activities to a house file of more than one million donors, ranging from $1 through $1,000, resulting in $35 million in annual revenues.
A graduate of St. Lawrence University, Ms. Suarez holds a Bachelor's degree in political science and economics. She has participated as a presenter at many national fundraising conferences, including those of the Direct Marketing Association and the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
PBS, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, is a private, nonprofit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation's 349 public television stations. Serving nearly 90 million people each week, PBS enriches the lives of all Americans through quality programs and education services on noncommercial television, the Internet and other media. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, the leading dot-org Web site on the Internet.
Press Contacts:
CONTACT: Lea Sloan, 703/739-5023
Jan McNamara, 703/739-5028