Fordham University named Roger A. Milici Jr. vice president for development and University relations, effective May 4, 2011. Milici has served as interim vice president since July 2010. He came to Fordham as associate vice president for development and University relations in May 2009.
“It is not an accident that Fordham received the largest gift in its history on Roger’s watch,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “In his role as the interim vice president Roger has earned the trust and respect of the Board of Trustees, our generous benefactors, our alumni, and of course myself. I am, therefore, delighted that he has accepted the permanent position.”
During Milici’s tenure as interim vice president, the University passed the $400 million mark inExcelsior | Ever Upward | The Campaign for Fordham, the University’s capital campaign officially launched in March 2009. Fordham reached the milestone in March 2011, and as of April 28, the University has raised $406 million toward the $500 million campaign goal, and $76 million this fiscal year. Since his arrival at Fordham, Milici has helped reorganize school-based fundraising, sought greater collaboration with academic leaders and undertaken a reorientation of the alumni relations program. In the last year he has also hired top-level advancement professionals in key areas, and initiated an overhaul of the University’s Web presence.
Before coming to Fordham, Milici was the senior director of development and alumni relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a post he held since June 2001. Prior to Tufts, Milici created a development and public relations program for the Congregation of Holy Cross at Stonehill College to promote and support educational, social service and missionary projects underway in the eastern United States and Peru.
Milici was born and raised in New Haven, Conn. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international affairs and a master’s degree in social and public policy at Duquesne University. He studied in the divinity program at Notre Dame, and at one point was preparing to become a Roman Catholic priest with the Congregation of Holy Cross. He had considered a career with the Vatican’s diplomatic corps, and toward that end spent time in Rome under the sponsorship of Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, the former Vatican undersecretary of state for public affairs.
Milici is fluent in Italian and speaks some Spanish, and serves as a trustee on the Cardinal Tardini Charitable Trust. Since 2009, he has served on the executive committee of the Jesuit Advancement Administrators Council, and last year served as co-chair of the development track at its annual conference. He and his wife, Frances Fleming Milici, live in Connecticut with their two daughters, Finula Frances and Annabella Rose.
“In my job one has to be focused on the numbers, of course,” Milici said. “But I am only doing my job well when I help create and sustain long-term relationships that marry donors and their investments with the University’s mission and its priority projects. The end result is tangible impact and societal good.”
