Khatmeh Osseiran-Hanna is Making Institutional Advancement About the Students
By Skylar Mattson
Khatmeh Osseiran-Hanna. Credit: Khatmeh Osseiran-Hanna
Exciting changes in leadership continue at St. Kate’s as Khatmeh Osseiran-Hanna steps into the role of Vice President of Institutional Advancement. Although a new face to St. Kate’s, this role is quite familiar to Osserian-Hanna. She has spent nearly thirty years in higher education, where she developed a background in alumni engagement, strategic fundraising and partnership development. Osserian-Hanna comes to St. Kate’s from her role as Vice President for University Advancement at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In this role, her leadership more than doubled the 40 million dollar goal of the university’s Imagine Unlimited comprehensive campaign.
Osseiran-Hanna said that St. Kate’s was an attractive school to work with because “I’ve always wanted to change the world and impact a greater good in society. St. Kate’s really attracted me with its mission in terms of intellectual inquiry, social justice and the empowerment of women. This mission is really unique in its way of… empowering a new generation every year to go out in the world and change it for the better.”
While Osseiran-Hanna was appointed into this role by St. Catherine University president Dr. Marcheta Evans, she explained that there was no prior connection between the two. “We had some people in common that we knew, but I didn’t know [anything]. I started reading about Marcheta. It was just really a breath of fresh air, especially for me, about diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
In her role at St. Kate’s, Osseiran-Hanna will work with corporations, foundations, alumni, students and colleagues to build partnerships and relations across all of these areas that will ultimately help to expand the university. To see more students leading and influencing everywhere, she stated, “We need to get sustainable financial backing. I believe strongly that there are people, institutions, corporations and foundations out there who will support us to do that. Students working together with alumni can help us even more.”
After St. Kate’s completed a capital campaign about a year and a half ago that raised nearly 150 million dollars, Osseiran-Hana is looking to complete another campaign “to address the needs for St. Kate’s going forward with a student-centered focus.” She seemed confident that this campaign could be even bigger than the last. “I believe that if you partner and engage all of the community and all of its stakeholders, that’s how we are going to go even beyond 150 million.” She sees multiple pieces of our campus as entities to this campaign including the O'Shaughnessy, the art gallery and athletics.
With its health sciences programs in growing demand, students continue to worry that St. Kate’s School of Humanities Arts and Sciences (SHAS) is falling into the cracks and will not be able to be built back up. Osseiran-Hanna assured that she wants SHAS to stay as a part of the university and even hopes to focus on it in this next campaign. She stated, “[St. Kate’s] is a liberal arts institution with a nursing school. It’s really important to focus on our roots moving forward. It’s something that I would want on our campus and would support for years to come.”
As she continues to settle into her role, expect to see Osseiran-Hanna around campus and do not be afraid to initiate a conversation. Student interaction is something that she desires. She explained, “I want more than just student philanthropy councils. I want to be able to interact with students. As we go forward with the campaign, I would love to establish a young cabinet that would include students and alumni. I also think it’s important for me to hear from students. What do they want in terms of networking with corporations?”
Ultimately, Osseiran-Hanna hopes to foster connections between students and opportunities for career advancement. She shared, “If there is any student who wants to connect or connect with an alum, they can reach out to me. I want to be able to let the students know that this is what institutional advancement is all about. We want to help manage your journey from now until later and connect you with all of the right people.”
