Jennifer Karlson joined UQ in 2017 to lead the University’s first comprehensive philanthropic campaign: Not if When—the Campaign to Create Change. The $500 million campaign was launched to inspire UQ’s 300,000+ global alumni community to create change by accelerating opportunity through philanthropy. One in three UQ alumni engaged with the University throughout the campaign, which closed at the end of 2020 with over $607 million in donations.

Karlson is the advisor to the Vice-Chancellor on strategy, external engagement and change management related to institutional advancement and sits on the UQ Endowment Fund Board. Her career history spans the US, West Africa and Asia Pacific, including roles with the American Red Cross and the YMCA. Prior to UQ, she served as the Assistant Dean, Advancement for the College of Letters & Science and Senior director of Development & Strategy Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison – America’s top Producer of Fortune 500 CEO’s.

Committed to growing a culture of philanthropy in Australia, in April 2019 Karlson chaired the CASE Asia-Pacific Advancement Conference in Australia – the first in country for the world’s leading conference for professionals in advancement.

In 2020, Karlson led an ambitious fundraising campaign to accelerate the development and manufacturing of a promising UQ vaccine candidate for COVID-19. The effort attracted $10 million in support from over 2600 donors in under four months and was recognised with a Universities Australia Award for Best Fundraising or Engagement Campaign. In 2020, she also received a UQ Excellence Award for Leadership for her contributions to philanthropy and the University.