Ed Sevilla

Ed Sevilla is a Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications at GG+A, where he partners with clients to develop effective marketing, communications, and messaging strategies to drive support for key institutional programs and initiatives. He brings more than 25 years of experience in public and private sector marketing, branding, and communications to this role, with expertise in fundraising messaging, strategic planning, brand alignment, campaign collateral, and marketing communications assessments.

Ed was previously the Strategic Communications practice area leader at GG+A, and a Vice President and Senior Vice President at the firm from 2012 until 2019. He went on to serve in the newly created role of Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer at the USS Constitution Museum (USSCM) in Boston, where he designed and led a $45-million comprehensive campaign for a new facility. He and the USSCM team raised $3 million during the campaign’s quiet phase, including two $1-million grants that broke new ground for the Museum. These were the second and third $1-million gifts to date, which have been the largest in the Museum’s history. The USSCM team also raised the Museum’s first-ever endowed fund for programming and generated more than $1 million in revenue from foundations and government agencies, helping to fund the Museum through pandemic closures.

Prior to this, during his tenure at GG+A, Ed led organizational reviews for development and communications teams that improved processes and strengthened communications capacity. He expanded client relationships with more than 20 universities, cultural institutions, and medical science organizations. In addition, he facilitated campaign visioning workshops for senior management, volunteer leaders, and faculty leaders at several universities, contributing to organizational alignment, refined campaign priorities, and improved fundraising messaging.

Before joining the firm, Ed served as the Executive Director of Strategic Communications, Alumni Affairs & Development at Harvard University. There, he was responsible for supporting Harvard’s advancement objectives and developing integrated messaging to engage the University’s global alumni constituency. Among his accomplishments, Ed received the 2010 CASE Circle of Excellence Gold Award in the “Annual Giving” category.

Ed’s professional background includes a variety of leadership roles in higher education, including Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing at Stonehill College, and Executive Director of University Relations at Bryant University. In the private sector, Ed worked in digital and interactive marketing at two start-up companies, as well as with global brands such as AT&T, Sports Illustrated, and Kodak on both the agency and client sides.

Ed has held professional memberships with and spoken at conferences for several organizations, including the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the New England Museum Association (NEMA), the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), and the American Marketing Association (AMA) Higher Ed Symposium. His articles have been published in the Journal of Product and Brand Management, Journal of Brand Strategy, Providence Journal, and USA Today.

Ed earned his M.B.A. from The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and his bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University. He served as a member of the Yale Alumni Task Force on Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and the Yale Reunion Class Gift Committee, and currently serves a Class Agent for the Yale Alumni Fund. Ed is a former member of the Board of Governors of the Yale Alumni Association (YAA), where he chaired the committee to nominate alumni trustees. He is also a member of the Steering Committee for the newly launched Asian Community Fund (ACF) at the Boston Foundation.

Clients: 

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Bishop Strachan School
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Carthage College
• Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York
• Cancer Research UK
• Cornell University
• Cranbrook Educational Community
• Dartmouth College
• Drexel University
• Filoli Historic House & Garden
• Florida Atlantic University
• Georgia State University
• Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation
• IESE
• INSEAD
• The Jackson Laboratory
• Lincoln Park Zoo
• McGill University
• Michigan State University
• Montréal Children's Hospital Foundation
• MoPOP – Museum of Popular Culture
• Museum Kunst der Westkuste
• New England Conservatory of Music
• New York University Stern School of Business
• Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Philadelphia Orchestra
• Philadelphia Theatre Company
• Princeton University
• Queensborough Community College
• Queen’s University  Canada
• Quinnipiac University
• San Francisco Conservatory of Music
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing
• Temple University Health System
• University of the Arctic
• University of California, Santa Cruz
• University of Cambridge
• The University of Chicago
• University of Colorado
• University of Florida
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Notre Dame
• University of Rochester
• University of Southern California
• University of Toronto
• Urban Land Institute
• Vanderbilt University