Cherrelyn Napue: “I am thrilled to be able to work more closely with faculty and staff on key funding initiatives.”

Institutional Advancement Vice President Carrie Besnette has named Cherrelyn A. Napue to the newly created position of associate vice president for development and alumni relations.

Napue, a 1999 Metro State graduate in nonprofit organization administration, had been associate VP for alumni relations and executive director of the Metro State Alumni Association.

“Cherrelyn is credited with revitalizing the alumni associations’ activities, programs and special event fundraising,” Besnette says. “Please join me in congratulating her on her appointment to this important job.”

“It is amazing to me how life has a way of coming full circle,” says Napue. “I am going back to my first nonprofit passion and career of fundraising. It is a great expansion of my current role of mostly ‘friend- raising’ for the College.”

This position was created following Assistant Vice President of Development Maureen McKenna’s departure from the College, Besnette said.

A 12-year career in fundraising
Prior to coming to Metro State in 2000, Napue had a successful 12-year career in development. She had served as executive director of the Black United Fund of Colorado (BUFCO), where she was responsible for fundraising for the annual funding of 20 member agencies, operational funds for BUFCO and the underwriting, creation and building renovation of the BUFCO Bargain Center, a second-hand store located in the Five Points Area. Napue was also director of corporate and foundation giving for Up with People and assistant campaign director for Mile High United Way.

A Colorado native and community leader, Napue has longstanding ties to numerous nonprofit organizations. She is the founding president of Colours TV and Black Star Communication, Inc., the only multicultural, 501© (3) broadcast station in the United States. She serves on the Colorado I Have a Dream Foundation Board of Directors and the Grants Committee for the Denver Affiliate of Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Highly respected by her peers, Cherrelyn is an alumni commissioner on the National Board of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and is on the CASE District VI Board of Directors. She is a member of Leadership Denver Alumni and the Up with People Alumni Association and a 2004 Colorado Trust Fellow.

“I am thrilled to be able to work more closely with faculty and staff on key funding initiatives,” Napue says. “To undertake the major funding needs of our College will require detailed planning and organization, but most importantly it is going to take teamwork and the collaborative effort by everyone with a vested interest in taking Metro State to preeminence.”