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Senior Staff Biographies

Kupec, Matt

Vice Chancellor for University Advancement

As UNC's chief advancement officer, Kupec is responsible for the development, government relations, community relations and public relations divisions. He received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Carolina in 1980. As the Tar Heels’ starting quarterback for four years, he set 19 season and career passing records. Kupec earned his master's degree in educational administration from Hofstra University and spent 10 years at Hofstra, where his last position was associate vice president for development and alumni relations. Kupec also served as director of The Campaign for Hofstra, successfully leading a $32-million capital campaign. He returned to Carolina in 1992 and served as the associate vice chancellor for development for five years. Kupec directed the successful $440 million Bicentennial Campaign for Carolina, UNC’s largest fund-raising effort up to that point. He was promoted to his current position in April 1996. In 1996, the Triangle Chapter of the National Society of Fund-Raising Executives named Kupec its Fund-Raising Executive of the Year. He directed the Carolina First Campaign, which finished as the fifth largest drive among completed campaigns at that time in the history of U.S. higher education. Running from July 1999 to December 2007, Carolina First raised $2.38 billion.

Dunn, Elizabeth

Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Development

As the senior associate vice chancellor of University Development at UNC, Dunn is responsible for the day-to-day operations of Carolina’s central development office.  The University recently completed its 8-year Carolina First Campaign having raised $2.38 billion, making it the fifth largest completed campaign in higher education history. Dunn received a Ph.D. in English from Carolina in 1985 and returned to her alma mater to assume her current position in 2004.  Her 15 years of prior development experience included service at the University of Texas at Austin and at Stratford Hall in Virginia.  She had previously served for 10 years as a faculty member in English.

Braxton, Beth

Director of Annual Giving

Braxton graduated from UNC in 1990 with a B.A. in journalism and moved to Tacoma, Wash., where she worked for Weyerhaeuser. She returned to North Carolina in 1991 and began her career in fund raising with the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and Hospice of Winston-Salem. In 1995, she accepted a position as assistant director of Rowan Regional Medical Center Foundation in Salisbury. In 1998, she became the director of the Lexington Memorial Hospital Foundation. Braxton joined UNC's Medical Foundation of North Carolina in June 1999 as director of alumni campaigns. In August 2000, she joined Kenan-Flagler Business School as interim director, annual giving and special projects, and in January 2001 assumed the position of major gifts officer. In February 2002, Braxton became assistant dean of development and alumni affairs at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and assumed her current position in November 2003.

Frazier, Diane

Director of Major Gifts

Frazier received a B.A. in psychology from UNC in 1974. She also received, in 1981, a studio diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she was also a teaching assistant in art history. For a decade, she taught persons with developmental disabilities at the Walter Fernald School in Waltham, Mass., and at the Minuteman Association for Retarded Citizens in Concord, Mass. From 1983 to1984, she was a recreation and art therapist at the Recreation Center for the Handicapped in San Francisco. In 1985, she joined the Development Office at Vanderbilt University, where she worked in reunion giving and served as director of development for the Blair School of Music. She returned to Carolina as a major gifts officer in 1991. Her current position is director of major gifts and senior major gifts officer.

Meares, Mark

Director, Academic Affairs (Corporate and Foundation Relations)

Meares graduated from UNC in 1978 with a B.A. in English.  For the next 16 years, he worked at Village Companies in Chapel Hill, N.C., in various capacities: as sales manager and publisher of The Village Advocate, as general manager of Village Printing, as publisher of The Leader Magazine, and as general manager and executive vice president of The Village Advocate, Village Printing and the Triangle Pointer magazine.  He then joined the Hudson Belk department store chain as marketing director in 1995 and was promoted to vice president in 1996.  Meares has served on the boards of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation.  He joined the University Advancement staff in April 1998 as associate director of corporate and foundation relations and assumed his present position in May 2001. 

Morgan, Laura

Director of University Events

Morgan is a graduate of Connecticut College.  She has produced events since 1985 when she joined the team for the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty and Operation Sail in 1986 in New York. She later worked for Celebrations International and the U.S. Committee for UNICEF on fund-raising events and special projects.  As vice president, event marketing at Lehman Brothers, she managed a group planning events around the world.  At Reuters, she established the corporate events group and led successful events in Europe and Asia for both Reuters and Instinet.  Following her move to North Carolina in 2000, Morgan worked as a consultant to corporations and the U.S. government managing projects in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Asia. She is a member of the Council of Protocol Executives (COPE). She joined UNC in September 2003.  Morgan and her family live in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Ragland, Scott

Director of Development Communications

Ragland received a bachelor’s degree in English from UNC in 1987and a master’s degree in creative writing (fiction) from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1993.  Ragland was a staff reporter for two years at the Henderson Daily Dispatch in Henderson, N.C., before becoming assistant public information officer of the Wake County Public School System in Raleigh, N.C., a position that he held from 1992 to1995.  From 1995 to 1998 he held the post of director of public relations at Louisburg College in Louisburg, N.C.  In 1998 he was named Carolina's director of internal communications and edited the University Gazette, the faculty/staff newspaper.  In July 2004, he assumed his current position in development. 

Routh, David

Director of Planned Giving

Routh joined the UNC in 2006 as director of the Office of Planned Giving.  Prior to joining the university, Routh served as managing director of U.S. Trust Company, N.A., where he was responsible for the day-to-day management of The Planned Giving Services Group, the firm’s national planned giving practice.  Prior to his years at U.S. Trust, Routh served as president and chief executive officer of Potpourri Press, a design and distribution firm based in Greensboro, N.C.  Routh currently serves on the boards of the North Carolina Center for Non-Profits and the North Carolina Humanities Council.  Routh previously served as board chair of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra,  Family and Children’s Service of Greensboro and Friends…you can count on, a breast cancer research non-profit.  Routh received a B.A. in economics and religious studies in 1982 from UNC and completed the National Trust School at Northwestern University in 1996. 

Snow, Helen

Director, Health Affairs (Corporate and Foundation Relations)

Snow graduated from UNC in 1974 with a B.A. and earned her M.B.A. from Kenan-Flagler Business School in 1976. Snow is also a graduate of the Harvard Arts Administration Institute, the Grantsmanship Center, the Center for Creative Leadership, the American Museum Management Institute, the John F. Kennedy Arts Center International Exchange Program and the Leadership Greensboro and Hampton Roads, Va.., programs.  From 1978 to 1996, Snow was president and chief executive officer of the United Arts Council of Greensboro, N.C., and then the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts.  In 1996, Snow joined First Counsel Inc. as managing partner of the national fund-raising consulting firm. She returned to UNC in 1998 as associate director of corporate and foundations relations and assumed her present position in May 2001.  Snow has served on numerous statewide and national professional boards and including serving as president/board member of the Association of Women Faculty and Professionals (AWFP) at UNC and on the national CASE Corporate & Foundation Conference planning committee.

Sobbe, Andi

Director of Donor and Prospect Relations

Sobbe graduated from DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in history.  After graduation, she served in South Korea in the U.S. Peace Corps and worked for 10 years as a teacher of English as a Second Language in Korea, Venezuela, and Los Angeles.  She subsequently served as director of admissions for the International School of Languages while teaching Spanish classes.  She has been a fund-raiser since 1984, working for the Venice Family Clinic, the American Diabetes Association, Westside Children’s Center and as the director of development for the Los Angeles Free Clinic.  Sobbe joined the UNC Development staff in 1993 as associate director of the annual fund.  She was promoted to director of the annual fund and in 1998 she became director of the Carolina Annual Fund and Donor/Prospect Services.  She received her master’s degree from the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication in May 2003.  She assumed her present position in November 2003. 

Steel, June

Associate Vice Chancellor for Advancement Services

Steel graduated from Framingham State College in 1969 with a degree in history.  In September 2000, she received an M.B.A. from Kenan-Flagler Business School.  Steel’s career at UNC began in 1984 when she worked for the Arts and Sciences Foundation during its first campaign, Foundations for Excellence.  In 1986, she joined the Office of University Development and assumed planned giving responsibilities in 1987 and became director in 1989.  In 1993, she also assumed responsibility for the regional major gift program. Steel was a founding member of the North Carolina Planned Giving Council and served as both treasurer and president.  Steel served as interim associate vice chancellor for development from September 2006 through January 2007. She moved to her current position in March 2004.