Trishana Bowden

Trishana Bowden joined George Mason University in March 2019 as the Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Relations and President of the George Mason University Foundation.

As the Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Relations and President of the Foundation, Trishana reports jointly to the President of the university and the Foundation Board of Trustees, working harmoniously with a multitude of highly engaged and energetic university and foundation partners. She is responsible for developing, executing, and evaluating all aspects of the university’s comprehensive fundraising program, including annual giving, major and leadership giving, corporate and foundation relations, planned giving, alumni relations, research and prospect management, development services, and donor cultivation and stewardship.

Trishana will provide vision and direction for University Advancement with a clear focus on future fundraising after the completion of the record-setting Faster Farther campaign, which concluded in December 2018. She will provide strategic leadership and direction for post-campaign analytics, reporting, and followup, while working with key leadership to develop clear priorities and a plan for future support through pipeline development, alumni engagement, and participation strategies.

Bowden came to Mason from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, where she was the Vice President for Advancement, responsible for providing strategy, leadership and direction for fundraising, alumni and parent relations, campaign planning, and implementation. Her accomplishments there included diversifying and strengthening Goucher’s donor base and pipeline to build a culture of philanthropy, which led to a doubling of overall giving to the institution in less than three years.

Prior to her work at Goucher, Trishana was the Associate Dean for External Relations at the University of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School of Law. She also served as Associate Dean for Institutional Advancement at American University Washington College of Law and has held development positions at the American Lung Association of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. She received a B.S. in Mass Communication/Media Studies from Towson University in 1991.