Jessie Brooks serves as the Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Spelman College.  Brooks joined Spelman as the Vice President for Institutional Advancement in November, 2016.   Brooks has over 25 years of experience in higher education fundraising. As a member of Spelman’s senior leadership team, Brooks provides oversight to the College’s fundraising program.  His responsibility at Spelman College includes oversight of individual giving, planned giving, corporate giving, annual giving, advancement services and operations, donor stewardship, donor events, campaign office and alumnae engagement and outreach.  Spelman College recently completed a comprehensive campaign

Prior to joining Spelman College Brooks served as the Senior Director of Development for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego). Jessie’s role focused on securing major and principal gifts to support oceanographic and environmental initiatives. During his time at Scripps Oceanography, he helped secure funds for the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine and the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. Specific key fundraising projects included securing funding for a new Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy System, a 100 Island Challenge, and fellowships for graduate students at Scripps Oceanography.

Brooks began his development career working in corporate and foundation relations at the Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of Global Management, later, at the University of Washington College of Engineering. In 2001, he began his first stint at UC San Diego, serving as Director of Development for major gifts in the Division of Biological Sciences. After two years in the role, he joined San Diego State University (SDSU), where he raised funds in support of the College of Health and Human Services. Five years later, he was named Assistant and then Associate Vice President for University Development at SDSU.  During his time at SDSU, the university initiated a $500M comprehensive campaign.  As associate vice president, Jessie managed the Advancement  Team and Development Operations.  Two key fundraising initiatives that Jessie spearheaded — working closely with the dean of the College of Sciences and the dean of the College of Health and Human Services — were the Donald P. Shiley Bioscience Center and the Sharp Healthcare Human Patient Simulator.