Deborah Murphy ’86, currently the Senior Associate Dean of Admissions, is relocating to the Office of Academy Resources (OAR) after 17 years of working in the Admissions Office. Murphy will be the new director of Alumni Affairs, replacing Reverend Michael Ebner ’70, who will become a Principal Gift Officer in OAR. “My colleagues in admissions are an extraordinary group of people, and I am very close to all of them,” she said. OAR began interviewing potential replacements for Ebner during the fall, but it was not until this spring that Murphy became involved in the process. OAR announced her appointment on Thursday. The Director of Alumni Affairs has many responsibilities, including organizing events such as Parents Weekend, Non Sibi Day, the Broadening Horizons program, Commencement and reunions, Ebner said. According to Ebner, the Office of Alumni Affairs is the “centerpiece in alumni communications.” “The office finds ways to connect alumni to the school. We strive to get alumni to be a resource for students and for the school to be a resource for the alumni,” he continued. The Director of Alumni Affairs is also the Executive Secretary of the Alumni Council, a committee of over 100 alumni. This committee provides advice and counsel to the school in matters such as technology, admissions, multicultural development and financial aid policies. “Michael Ebner and the alumni affairs team have implemented some wonderful programs over the past several years. I look forward to continuing the work being done there already and also providing a fresh perspective and implementing new ideas,” said Murphy. According to Murphy, one of the upcoming plans for the alumni affairs office includes updating the alumni page on the school website, where alumni can sign up for reunions and create class pages. Murphy hopes to improve BlueLink, an online system where alumni can post their personal information and search for fellow alumni. She believes that as younger generations graduate from the school, the new site should provide social networking tools similar to Facebook. She hopes to set up a career mentoring program where older alumni provide career advice for young alumni or current students. In this new age of technology, she also wants to improve communication with the alumni by sending out notices electronically. “[Murphy] is the ideal candidate for this job. She is an alumna, she is already very involved with the school and her work in Admissions is very similar to what she will take on the Alumni Office. They both deal with external communications,” said Ebner. Murphy said, “During my time in admissions, I worked with 14- and 15-year olds. I now … shift my focus to our alumni body, some of whom I had the pleasure of getting to know during the admission process. This new job will present me with new opportunities and challenges…” Murphy will officially begin her new position this summer.
