By Caroline Barnhill
To Anne Clark Lau, Poole College feels like one big family. As the college’s associate director of development, Lau has the opportunity to build relationships with alumni, parents, friends or corporate partners.
“I’ve spent four years working with Poole College, over which time my role has shifted. I moved from wearing a few hats to just one – working with our college’s leadership donors to help them realize the impact they can have with their giving, as well as learning why they choose to support Poole College,” she says.
Q&A with Anne Clark Lau
What is a project in your current role that you are particularly proud of?
Honestly, I am proud of every gift I help facilitate to the college as it is a realization of a donor’s desire to support the college at a level that is feasible and meaningful for them. During this academic year, we highlighted some of those leadership gifts with an article featuring five donors who committed to create current-use scholarships in July and August. We’ve had more donors commit to supporting our students through multi-year commitments to the Excellence Fund or additional current-use scholarships that are not included in this article, but who also have wonderful stories of why they support the college. Hearing those stories and helping a donor create impact that is meaningful to them is the best day-to-day job I could ask for!
What’s the most memorable Poole College event you have attended?
While we have not had it in a few years, I loved our Leadership and Innovation Showcase. This event enabled our external community to come and see the terrific work our students presented on. From marketing projects where students developed full marketing plans for clients to risk analysis for a corporation to a supply chain analysis, our community was able to witness the type of student that graduates from Poole College and what they are going to contribute to the workforce.
Additionally, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our Poole College tailgates that we’ve hosted for the last two football seasons. This is a great avenue for our donors and alumni to come meet the development staff and Dean Buckless. We’ve been able to meet so many alumni we had not previously connected with face to face.
Why do you love being a part of Poole?
Poole College develops a truly dynamic graduate. I have fallen in love with Poole College by meeting our alumni and current students and hearing about their experiences. Almost everyone I meet with has nothing but positive things to say about Poole College and their personal interactions with our terrific faculty and staff.
I also love Poole College because of the great group of colleagues I have on the Development and External Relations team. We work hard but also enjoy taking time to know about one another’s lives outside of work. We had a retreat this winter and concluded our day by participating in an escape room. We escaped with time to spare – talk about great teamwork and communication!
Tell us more about your life outside of Poole College.
My husband, Eric, and I purchased our first house nearly three years ago and have a sweet dog, Copper, who is a beagle-pitbull mix. We prioritize spending time with family, which is easy for my family as my parents are local and my sister and her family are in Greensboro. To visit my husband’s family, we hop on a nice direct flight to Los Angeles about twice a year or host them here. Outside of family, I’ve been fortunate to foster friendships through my past participation in Junior League, bible study and a needlepoint group. My husband and I also thoroughly enjoy wine, having visited Italy for a second time last summer. You can find us celebrating big events at home with a steak made by my husband (best steaks in town!) with a bottle of Italian red.
My Poole colleagues might not know…
I am a big crafter! I enjoy a variety of crafts but especially enjoy designing custom cards or apparel for my family and friends. I also really enjoy needlepointing and have taken to creating my own designs from ornaments to a birth announcement I made for my nephew.
