New development VP finds his work "a joy"
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Photo by Flying Squirrel Graphics |
Brian Lally started his working life as an air traffic controller, but he says that, in retrospect, "pushing tin" was less stressful than raising money. DHMC's new vice president for development, Lally (pictured above) is qualified to make the judgment: before coming to Dartmouth, he spent four years as an air traffic controller in New York and then 18 years—most recently as director of development for individual gifts—at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
But although being a fund-raiser may involve stress, Lally makes it clear that it's an energizing sort of stress. "The real joy of development work," he says, "and this is surprising to people, is what a wonderful experience it is to be able to give money away in a way that makes a difference. It is a joy marrying institutional needs to the donor's need to have an impact—to make it successful for both parties." And, he says, "often you find a friend, and also an individual who is being extraordinarily generous in a way they never thought they'd be."
The challenge he faces at DHMC is ensuring a funding stream sufficient to support "this outstanding academic medical enterprise. . . . You need a world-class faculty," he says, "which takes the resources to attract them."
Lally describes himself as a "New York kid," having grown up and spent almost his entire life in or near the Big Apple. He attended Stuyvesant High School and the City University of New York's Queens College, and he holds an M.B.A. from St. John's University.
Was it an adjustment for such a confirmed New Yorker to make the transition to the Upper Valley? Lally shakes his head. The culture is great, he says, and the schools—he has one child in middle school and one in high school locally, plus two in college elsewhere—are exceptional. But, he admits, he's still looking for a barber and for that glory of metropolitan life—the one-day shirt laundry. —M.M.C.
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