Vice President for Resource Development

Photo of Julie Lucas

Julie A. Lucas

Office Phone 617-253-3952
Room W98-654

Biography

Julie A. Lucas has served as the vice president for resource development at MIT since 2014. She reports to the president and directs the Institute’s fundraising enterprise, securing resources to ensure MIT’s leadership in higher education. Her chief responsibility is establishing strategic direction for fundraising teams and the departments that support them. This includes identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding major, principal, leadership, and planned gifts to build philanthropic support for the Institute.

In 2016, Lucas spearheaded the public launch of the MIT Campaign for a Better World, an ambitious $5 billion fundraising initiative that amplified the Institute’s distinctive strengths in education, research, and innovation, and has advanced MIT’s work on some of the world’s biggest challenges. Under her leadership, the Institute elevated its fundraising aspirations to embrace the tremendous possibilities of the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing. In December 2018, MIT’s president announced that the Institute would increase the Campaign goal to $6 billion. In June 2021, MIT completed the Campaign and surpassed the goal, raising a total of $6.24 billion. Under her leadership, the Office of Resource Development has exceeded its annual fundraising target of $500 million for the past eight years.

Lucas has more than 25 years of experience as a development professional and currently serves as chair of CASE 50, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education group that includes the top 50 fundraising institutions in the world. She has held senior roles at various institutions prior to joining MIT, including University of Southern California, Fordham Law School, Hofstra University, and New York University (NYU) and its business and law schools. She earned a BA from McDaniel College, an MS from Hofstra University, and advanced certification from NYU’s Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising.