Shane Dunn

Shane Dunn (he/him), a first-generation college graduate of Cornell University and Boston College, is a Boston-based advancement and external relations professional with 18 years of experience working and volunteering across a variety of nonprofit organizations. He currently serves as Deputy Director of Development at the Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology, or Franklin Cummings Tech, an independent two-year technical college in Boston that has transformed the way students prepare for economic advancement in technical fields in Eastern Massachusetts.

After graduating from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in Communication and Inequality Studies, Shane became an “accidental advancement professional” at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University where he worked in the alumnae relations and annual giving office. He then oversaw the expansion and diversification of the alumni Shared Interest Groups program at Tufts University and then launched a series of new initiatives to connect graduate business school students and alumni at MIT Sloan School of Management.

Shane has also served as Senior Director of Development and Alumni Relations at Brandeis International Business School in Waltham, MA. While serving on the Dean’s leadership team and also reporting to the Vice President of Institutional Advancement, he oversaw the school’s 25th anniversary reunion weekend, carried a portfolio of 130+ major gifts prospects, increased engagement and communications with an international alumni base throughout the pandemic, and successfully secured multiple seven-figure major gifts in support of school- and university-wide priorities. His social sector leadership experience also includes impactful roles at two high-performing charter public school networks in Boston and also as Chief Advancement Officer at Rosie's Place, the nation's first shelter for poor and homeless women and one of the most recognizable nonprofits in Boston.

Over the past 18 years, Shane has also served in several leadership roles as an alumni volunteer with Cornell, including President of the Cornell Club of Boston and his alumni class council, a lifetime member of the Cornell University Council, founder of the Cornell Alumni Advisory Board, and Vice President of Recognition for the College of Agriculture of Life Sciences (CALS) Alumni Association. He is a 2024 recipient of the Cornell CALS Alumni Association Young Alumni Achievement Award, acknowledging his professional accomplishments and also his service and advocacy to the LGBTQ+ community as a long-serving board member of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law).

Shane holds a master's degree in Higher Education Administration from Boston College and is currently pursuing an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration at BC. While an undergraduate, he studied abroad in Bath, England, through the prestigious Advanced Studies in England (ASE) program affiliated with Franklin & Marshall College, University of Oxford, and University of Bath.