University of Lynchburg has named Heather Garnett ’05 MEd the director of Alumni Relations. She will join the LC Office of Advancement staff on April 1.
Garnett has more than 25 years of experience in higher education, including 10 years as the director of alumni at Randolph College (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College) in Lynchburg. In that position, she provided strategic leadership that allowed the college to rebuild support of alumnae after the school became coeducational.
At LC, Garnett will work with members of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, LC staff, and alumni volunteers to organize and execute events for alumni on campus and throughout the country. She also will provide direction for alumni communications.
She hopes LC graduates will feel more connected to each other and to their alma mater as they interact more. “I want to build on the program at University of Lynchburg so that our alumni can continue their current engagement efforts but also find new ways to engage,” said Garnett.
After receiving her degree in economics from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, Garnett worked in the hospitality industry for four years before returning to R-MWC as director of summer programs. She became the assistant alumnae director in 1992 and was promoted to associate alumnae director in 1997. While serving in that position, Garnett earned her master’s degree in educational leadership, with a focus on higher education, at LC.
She said LC’s graduate faculty impressed her with their commitment to students and their helpful attitude as she balanced her career and her family with her continued education. “That caring, supportive environment was something that mattered so much to me,” she said.
She completed her MEd degree in 2005, about one year before she became R-MWC’s director of alumnae.
