Karen Wright

Interim Vice President Karen Wright is an award-winning and transformative visionary with more than 30 years of experience in c-suite leadership, fundraising, networking, and client cultivation.  

She has a proven track record of building strategic relationships, maintaining fiscal responsibility, and leading high-performing teams.  At Fort Valley State University her oversight includes the Office of Institutional Advancement and the FVSU Foundation.  

As Vice President of Institutional Advancement at St Thomas Aquinas College, she provided counsel and operational expertise to faculty, colleagues, and the board of trustees on all aspects of the institutional advancement paradigm.  There, Wright launched the $29 million dollar Best YOU Ever comprehensive campaign in support of student scholarships, academic innovation, athletics, and student housing. This effort added to the $47 million dollar endowment and engaged over 12,000 alumni.  

At New York University’s Silver School of Social Work, she led a team to meet annual and multi-year goals in support of the NYU Momentum $1 billion dollar scholarship campaign. Her collaborative management style built a foundation for success and encouraged talented individuals to thrive in the fundraising industry then and now. Her fundraising strategy helped to grow her funding profile from $1.4 million to more than $17.7 million in sponsored research and in one year raised $2.6 million from 685 donors to support student scholarships. 

Wright earned her psychology degree from Fisk University, studied MSW at New York University. She is an American Express Leadership Academy Fellow and completed the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women incubator program. She has extensive training in leadership, management, executive sales, and entrepreneurship. 

She actively volunteers in areas that support the empowerment of women, families, and children. 

She is married to businessman, Eric Wright and they have one son, Justin.