Meet the External Affairs Office Staff

Contact the external affairs office staff via e-mail by clicking on the names below.

Susan M. Murphy
Director of External Affairs

As a key member of the Executive Team, Susan's primary responsibility is to develop, manage, direct and achieve the revenue generating activities and goals related to enrollment, fundraising/advancement, communications, marketing, and "Brand Building" programs and activities of the school to help achieve the school's goals and support the school's mission and strategic plan. Susan develops, manages and provides strategic leadership in the areas of enrollment, fundraising/advancement, communications and marketing.

Donna Cronberger
Administrative Assistant

Donna manages gift accounting, record keeping, database, acknowledgements and general reports for the capital campaign. She also assists the Blue and Gold Club with organizing their annual golf fundraiser and supports all alumni and development events and activities. Donna serves as the office receptionist and the assistant to the director of external affairs.

Jan Gondek Hudson
Chief Development Officer

Focused on developing sustainable philanthropic support for Detroit Country Day School, Jan’s primary responsibility is to develop, manage, direct and achieve the fundraising programs, activities, and goals of the school to help achieve the school’s overall goals and support the school’s mission and strategic plan.  She develops, manages, executes, and provides strategic leadership in all areas of philanthropy including fundraising campaigns targeting individual and major annual, capital, and endowment gifts, corporate and foundation grants, special events, planned giving and all other fundraising initiatives.

Laura Korotkin
Administrative Assistant

Laura assists with all aspects of parent relations including parent associations, annual giving and auction. Her auction responsibilities include working with volunteers, tracking and collecting auction items, managing the acknowledgement process and creating raffle tickets and other documents. She manages the auction bills, collections and reimbursements and assists the volunteers in obtaining materials for the creation of the ad book. In addition, Laura assists with gathering information for the annual report and also helps with the organization and execution of the phone-a-thon, headmaster's recognition dinner and parent association events. She manages data in Senior Systems and the auction software program and oversees all daily parent relations office functions while providing support for all alumni and external affairs events.

Kira Mann
Director of Alumni Relations 

Kira directs all alumni programs such as career day, class reunions, alumni-senior dinner, alumni holiday events, alumni mom's luncheon, alumni receptions, alumni college gatherings, alumni sporting events and homecoming. She is responsible for the class agent program and volunteer committees such as the alumni council and reunion committees. Kira oversees all alumni annual fundraising programs including the general appeal, phone-a-thons and reunion giving and also manages the alumni section of the school's external website and the alumni and alumni parent portals on the school's internal site. She writes and produces the E-Bee and Beehive publications while also managing the school's archives. She assists with parent programs, student activities and other development and special events as needed.
 

Jackie Martin
Administrative Assistant

Jackie manages gift accounting, record keeping, pledge reminders, acknowledgements and general correspondence related to all school fund raising efforts. She is the primary caretaker of confidential information for Senior Systems in regards to contact information, gift records and alumni notations. Jackie updates address, phone number and email address changes and provides support for all alumni and external affairs events.

 
Frank Orlando
Assistant Director of Alumni Relations

Frank assists in the planning and executing of all alumni events including homecoming, career day, alumni sporting events, class reunions and alumni receptions. He helps with alumni fundraising programs such as the brick paver program and reunion giving. He also supports alumni regional chapters and the alumni council. Frank is the head women's varsity basketball coach and the head men's varsity baseball coach.

Michele Reimer
Administrative Assistant

Michele coordinates the enrollment and admissions processes and efforts for the school.  She has administrative responsibility for the oversight, training and data integrity for the enrollment and admissions system module as well as developing processes to ensure communication, consistency, collaboration, and competency between all of the administrative assistants responsible for enrollment processing.  Michele manages the contract process for new and re-enrolling students, reviews and updates admissions materials, and prepares and monitors internal and external statistical reporting.  She assists with all aspects of the school’s open houses and schedules school representation at outside school visitations and expos.  In addition, Michele administers entrance examinations for the Middle and Upper Schools, performs clerical duties related to the school’s Guided Tuition program, and provides support for all external affairs events and projects.