Maryville University President Mark Lombardi, PhD, has announced Laraine Davis will serve as vice president for community and government relations, beginning April 15. Davis, a native of St. Louis, alumnus of Maryville and former Wells Fargo Advisors executive, is a highly respected community and government relations professional.
“We are thrilled to have Laraine Davis join the leadership team at Maryville,” said Lombardi. “Laraine has an extensive record of accomplishments and will bring valuable community relationships to the position, as well as a keen understanding of the workforce development and educational needs of businesses and communities in the region. We believe she is an ideal person to align our fundraising goals with our strategic plan to support ambitious growth and innovation.”
“President Lombardi’s vision for revolutionizing the higher education model is incredibly inspiring and serving in this role is an exciting opportunity for me,” Davis said. “Maryville is providing access and opportunity to a high-quality education for underserved populations and is also creating a unique workforce training program to support the reskilling and upskilling needs of businesses in the area. I’m eager to get to work.”
In addition to leading the university’s community and government relations efforts, Davis will also provide executive oversight for the development and alumni relations division that promotes Maryville’s strategic plan to key constituencies with the objective of raising friends and funds.
“The development and alumni relations division couldn’t be more excited to have Laraine lead our efforts,” said Fay Fetick, executive director for Development and Alumni Relations. “Not only does she bring a rich and diverse background from her work in the St. Louis community, but she is also a proud graduate of Maryville. We’re eager for her to continue her Maryville journey as a leader within the university.”
Davis has 23 years of experience in financial services including government and industry relations and community relations. Throughout her 17-year tenure with Wells Fargo Advisors, Davis worked on building strategic partnerships across Wells Fargo while working to serve those communities most in need.
As a director for Wells Fargo Government and Industry Relations Davis had responsibility for managing national partnerships, mitigating risk and influencing policy with some of Wells Fargo’s most important partners including Hispanic, African American and Asian Real Estate Associations, The National League of Cities, 100 Black Men of America and others.
While working in Community Relations, Davis led the development of the Wells Fargo Finance Education Center at Harris Stowe State University which features a real time trading floor. Davis successfully worked with the St. Louis Public Schools and the Missouri Council for Economic Education to map Wells Fargo’s “Hands on Banking” into the middle school curriculum. She also coordinated Wells Fargo’s outreach efforts in the metro area for many nonprofits and schools.
More recently, Davis joined the Wells Fargo Advisors Next Generation Talent Team. As Next Generation Talent’s Community Champion Program Manager, Davis worked to build programs and resources that create awareness of Next Generation Talent careers in order to increase the pool of diverse candidates.
Davis is a proud graduate of Ursuline Academy and holds a BA in Psychology from Maryville University. She sits on the Board of Directors for The Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri.