Kelley Marchbanks is the new development director for CVM.
In a world of shrinking state funding for higher education, every college in Oregon needs an energetic advocate to go out into the non-academic world and tell people about the hard work and forward-thinking achievements that occur weekly on a college campus. The College of Veterinary Medicine recently got that advocate in Kelley Marchbanks.
Kelley is the new director of development for CVM and is characteristically enthusiastic about her goal of connecting animal lovers with college programs. “What’s really exciting about OSU vet med is that it’s a newer program,” she says. “That leaves a lot of potential to do new things.”
Kelley grew up on a small family farm in central Missouri so she knows her way around the world of animals. After college, she worked in the non-profit sector and then returned to her alma mater, University of Missouri (MU), to work in alumni relations. That led to a development position in the MU vet school where she worked for five years. Kelley wants to use that background and experience to help advance CVM. “I have this great network of development people who are resources,” she says. “I want to take the best practices from them and morph them to fit OSU and the Oregon lifestyle.”
With her husband and five-year-old daughter still in Missouri, Kelley is temporarily sharing living space with several CVM students. But the cramped quarters aren’t a problem because vet students work so hard “they aren’t around that much,” she says.
Kelley is looking forward to the arrival of her family in December and to moving into their new home. Her husband is the VP of a computer company in Missouri and he will be telecommuting. Their hunter-jumper, Blue, won’t arrive until next spring.
Once they are settled, the Marchbanks plan to check out the theater scene in Corvallis. Long-time community theater participants, they met on stage playing Rolf and Leizel in the Sound of Music. “I was actually sixteen going on seventeen,” she says. That stage romance led to marriage seven years later. Now they are excited to see what Oregon has to offer. “It’s a whole new adventure,” she says.
