Pitzer College Welcomes Three New Members to the Office of College Advancement and Communications Leadership Team

Claremont, Calif. (November 16, 2021)—Pitzer College announced the addition of three new members to its Office of College Advancement and Communications leadership team today: Yulanda N. Davis-Quarrie, Assistant Vice President for Advancement; Annya Lott, Senior Director of Philanthropy; and Erika Quiñonez, Executive Director of Advancement Operations.

“I am thrilled to welcome Yulanda, Annya, and Erika to our team,” said Vice President for College Advancement and Communications Kimberly Shiner. “I know each one of them will make tremendous contributions to the College as they help increase support for our students, promote our academic priorities, and strengthen our capacity to be ever mindful of the future at Pitzer.”

Yulanda N. Davis-Quarrie
Yulanda N. Davis-Quarrie

Yulanda N. Davis-Quarrie brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in the field of philanthropy. She recently served as the Director of Institutional Advancement for Ramona Convent Secondary School, a nonprofit, private all-girls college preparatory high school in Alhambra. Davis-Quarrie will join Pitzer on December 1. 

As Assistant Vice President for Advancement at Pitzer, Davis-Quarrie will lead the philanthropy team in creating and implementing strategies to engage, solicit and steward the donor community. She will work closely with Vice President Shiner to foster a culture of philanthropy, bolster transformative fundraising, and build a high-performing team to ready the College for major fundraising initiatives. 

A Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) since 1990, Davis-Quarrie has helped secure philanthropic support for various nonprofit organizations in Southern California, primarily in education and healthcare, including Claremont Graduate School, St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, Citrus Valley Health Partners, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital Foundation, and St. Lucy’s Priory High School.

She is actively involved with the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), where she is a member of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter as well as on the board for the local chapter. In addition, Davis-Quarrie serves as chair of AFP’s Global Investment subcommittee and on the AFP Foundation Committee on Appointment.  

Davis-Quarrie volunteers for various organizations, including the USC Alumni Association, West Covina Rotary and the Pomona Valley Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta. Additionally, she holds membership in the West Covina Women’s Club, Assistance League of Covina Valley and the Pomona Area Chapter of Jack and Jill of America as a lifetime associate member. 

Davis-Quarrie earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from USC and a master’s degree in health care management from California State University, Los Angeles.

Annya Lott
Annya Lott

Annya Lott joins the Pitzer community after recently working at Morehouse College as the Senior Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations. Previously, she worked at California State University, San Bernardino, the Fuller Foundation, mothers2mothers, and Black Enterprise magazine. Her broad experience includes managing national fundraisers, matching-gift campaigns and philanthropic partnerships for large and small nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions. She started her new role at Pitzer on November 1.

As Senior Director of Philanthropy, Lott will manage a portfolio of high-capacity donors, engage the College’s leadership, volunteers, and the broader academic community in the cultivation and solicitation of significant gifts in support of the College’s funding priorities. She will also serve as a strategic partner to the Foundation and Corporate Relations team to determine collaborative opportunities for philanthropic giving at Pitzer.

Lott earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Spelman College and a master’s degree in journalism from Boston University. As an undergraduate, she studied abroad in Cuba and South Africa. She is a recent graduate of Leadership California’s CIT Program (California Issues and Trends) and serves on the nonprofit’s Funding and Partnerships Committee. She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and the Council for Support of Education (CASE).

Erika Quiñonez
Erika Quiñonez

Erika Quiñonez is a skilled leader in higher education fundraising with experience in large and small public and private institutions. Most recently, she served as Director of Stewardship at Pomona College, where she developed the foundational groundwork for Pomona’s stewardship program in preparation for its upcoming campaign.

As Executive Director for Advancement Operations, Quiñonez will lead the Advancement Services, Prospect Management and Research teams to advance gift processing, data integrity, reporting and analytics to support fundraising operations. She will also work closely with Vice President Kim Shiner on departmental budget and human resource operations by partnering across the College with internal campus stakeholders and work closely with the frontline fundraising staff to build the College’s donor pipeline. 

Prior to Pomona, Quiñonez developed and launched a comprehensive, university-wide stewardship and donor relations program and served as Senior Donor Relations Officer at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB). She also managed the prospect management for the university’s top prospects assigned to the President, Vice President and AVP by developing strategic moves management plans. Quiñonez worked in a variety of roles over the course of her 15 years at CSUSB, during which time she presented at conferences for the Association for Donor Relations Professionals (ADRP) and the Association for Advancement Services Professionals (AASP) and served on the boards of the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art (RAFFMA) and the San Bernardino Symphony Guild.

Quiñonez earned a master’s in Business Administration degree in Management, as well as a master’s degree in Composition and Applied Linguistics from California State University, San Bernardino, after completing her undergraduate degree in Business Administration from California Polytechnic University, Pomona.  

About Pitzer College

Pitzer College is a nationally top-ranked undergraduate liberal arts and sciences institution. A member of The Claremont Colleges, Pitzer offers a distinctive approach to a liberal arts education by linking intellectual inquiry with interdisciplinary studies, cultural immersion, social responsibility, and community involvement. For more information, please visit www.pitzer.edu.

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