Last year, the AB50C Awards honored 50 exceptional leaders. But who are they beyond their roles? We spoke with these leaders to uncover the stories, passions, and perspectives that shape them and what truly sets them apart.

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Why She's a Champion

Susan Lewers has spent decades building donor relationships, mentoring fundraising talent, and helping institutions think bigger about advancement strategy. At Illinois Tech, she has played a key role in major and transformational giving while also exploring how AI can support more personalised donor engagement, without losing the human side of fundraising.

Beyond the Title

Susan has spent most of her career doing something increasingly rare in advancement: staying.

Sixteen years at Illinois Tech. Nine years in another organisation before that. Earlier roles that shaped not just her career, but some of her closest friendships too.

That belief in long-term relationships shapes the way she approaches advancement today.

"It does such a disservice to us and our relationships when people move around too quickly.”

Outside of work, she loves murder mystery stories and is currently obsessed with Taylor Swift’s No Body, No Crime.

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What Winning AB50C Meant to Her?

For Susan, winning AB50C felt exciting but also meaningful because advancement professionals rarely get recognized publicly for the work happening behind the scenes.

She was nominated by a colleague she deeply admires, which made the moment even more special.

“We work directly with donors. They’re kind of the stars. We’re just helping guide them toward projects that match their passion.”

For her, the recognition was less about category titles and more about being part of a larger community doing meaningful work.

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Finding Her Way into Advancement

Ask Susan how she got into fundraising, and she’ll probably start with Girl Scout cookies.

As a child, her mother made her sell them door-to-door, teaching her early lessons about confidence, communication, and hearing “no” without fear.

“No isn’t always no forever. Sometimes it’s just not now.”

Years later, during college, she interned at a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., helping organise fundraising events for organizations like UNICEF and the Children’s Defense Fund.

That experience pushed her toward advancement work, eventually leading her through roles in legal aid, higher education, and fundraising leadership.

At one point, she even went to law school because she believed it would help her become a better advisor to donors.

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The Work That Matters

Today, Susan leads work across major gifts, planned giving, corporate partnerships, and foundation relations at Illinois Tech.

She’s also passionate about mentoring younger fundraisers and helping early-career talent grow quickly into strong relationship managers.

But what she loves most is still the donor side of the work, bringing people closer to the university and helping them understand the impact they can create.

Whenever the administrative side of advancement becomes frustrating, she follows advice once given to her by a mentor:

“Go see a donor.”

It’s a reminder she still carries with her today.

Especially now, as Illinois Tech works toward one of its biggest goals yet: a billion-dollar campaign.

“Illinois Tech needs it, deserves it, and we think the donor base can do it.”

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The Future of AI in Advancement

Susan sees AI as a support system, not a replacement for fundraisers.

Illinois Tech became an early adopter of fundraising AI through Givzey, launching an AI fundraiser named Scarlett to help engage unassigned donor prospects more personally at scale.

For Susan, the goal isn’t removing humans from fundraising, it’s giving advancement teams better tools to build stronger relationships.

“I believe deeply that the human still needs to be involved.”

Even in her own workflow, she uses ChatGPT mostly as a starting point for ideas and communication drafts, not as the final voice.

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An Initiative She's Proud Of

Right now, Susan is focused on Illinois Tech’s Power of Difference campaign — a billion-dollar effort supporting scholarships, faculty, research, and long-term institutional growth.

But for her, the most important part isn’t the fundraising number itself.

It’s the impact behind it.

She spoke passionately about supporting first-generation and Pell-eligible students and how education can completely change the trajectory of families and communities.

“It changes their family. It changes their community. It changes our city.”

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Rapid Fire

Where It All Comes Together

What stands out most about Susan is how consistently she brings the conversation back to people.

Whether she’s mentoring fundraisers, building donor relationships, experimenting with AI tools, or helping lead a billion-dollar campaign, the focus always comes back to connection and impact.

And in advancement, that’s what makes the work matter.

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