Senior personnel changes take place at Maxwell School

Jill Leonhardt
(315) 443-5492

Maxwell School Dean Mitchel Wallerstein has announced three senior personnel changes–two new staff members in the Dean’s Office and a new director of the school’s Executive Education Program.

Lisa C. Honan has been named assistant dean for development, replacing Gary Livent who is retiring. William J. Sullivan is assuming a new position as assistant dean for external relations. Steven Lux will replace Sullivan as director of executive education.

Honan comes to her new role from Syracuse University’s Office of Donor Relations, where she has served as director and then executive director over the past 10 years. She will join Maxwell on a full-time basis on Nov. 17. She currently oversees a department of five full-time staff responsible for all donor recognition and stewardship activities, both centralized and in collaboration with the University’s academic and administrative units. The department’s responsibilities include donor agreement and gift management, stewardship reporting, acknowledgments, gift society recognition, and donor cultivation and recognition events and activities. Honan is part of the senior strategic planning team and is particularly involved in restructuring development communications internally and externally. She has spoken at numerous conferences and workshops, and chaired the 2004 International Conference for the Association of Donor Relations Professionals (ADRP) and the 2007 CASE Conference for Donor Relations. She is a member of the board of directors for ADRP and is the organization’s treasurer. Honan holds a bachelor’s degree from the University at Albany.

Sullivan has served as director of executive education since 1989. Under his leadership, Maxwell’s Executive Education Program has grown to become one of the most successful university-based programs of its kind in the United States, with a programmatic scope that spans the globe. In addition to a current portfolio that includes 100 full- and part-time students enrolled in the executive M.P.A. program, Executive Education has formed close international partnerships with Chile, China, India, Korea, Mexico and Vietnam. In his new position as assistant dean for external relations, Sullivan will work closely with the school’s development team to identify and cultivate new donors–particularly international alumni–and to raise funds to support current programs and projects. He will also work with individual Maxwell faculty members and groups to develop ideas for new projects and programs. Sullivan holds a master’s degree in political science from Boston College and an M.P.A. degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Lux has been the assistant director of executive education since 2004. He has managed non-degree programs, including the Leaders for Democracy Fellowship program funded by the U.S. Department of State. He also teaches two graduate-level courses, “NGO Management in Developing and Transitioning Countries” and “Governance and Global Civil Society.” Before joining the Maxwell School, Lux worked in Southeast Asia for more than 10 years, first for the Population and Community Development Association and then for Population and Development International, where–as regional director–he oversaw program development in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. His work there focused on a broad set of development issues in rural settings, including health and economic development. Lux holds an A.B. degree from Harvard University and an M.P.A. degree from the Maxwell School.