Profile
Please describe your Moravian experience: My Moravian experience as a student fostered my development as a leader, built my confidence to handle new situations, and provided lifelong friendships. Professors such as Clark Chapman, Bob Burcaw, Dan Gilbert, and Betty Smolansky sparked a love of learning in me and challenged me so that I gained essential critical thinking skills. HUB director Paty Eiffe taught me how to run an effective meeting, a skill that would prove invaluable when I returned to Moravian as director of alumni relations in 1991. She also taught me important organizational skills that were the essential foundation of my success as alumni director. My second experience at Moravian started in 1991 when I became director of alumni relations. I applied many of the skills I learned at Moravian as a student to my job as I organized events, ran meetings, and built programs. My networking skills that started at Moravian when I was a student, proved invaluable. When I moved to the position of director of leadership giving, I developed additional skills which I am using today in my volunteer work with a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Tanzania, East Africa.
How have you been involved at Moravian, and why did you get involved? Since retiring from Moravian, I have been only minimally involved chairing my class reunions and organizing small get-togethers of former players of my former coach, Chris Wytock Jackson. I continue to support Moravian financially. I am involved because I love Moravian, and I value the relationships I built there.
What do you like/enjoy most about Moravian, and why is it so important to you? As a small, caring community, Moravian helped me to develop leadership skills and to experience academic success. I was able to participate in sports, direct the student tutorial project, and participate in various organizations. Later, as director of alumni relations and director of leadership giving, I developed confidence and skills that have gifted me in all aspects of my life. At this point in my life, I most enjoy the contact with my scholarship recipients and the life-long friendships that I built at Moravian.
What type of legacy do you hope to leave at Moravian? How would you like to be remembered? I would like to be remembered as someone who cared deeply about her alma mater and who helped other students and alumni develop a life-long relationship with their alma mater.
What motivates you to stay involved at Moravian? Although the extent of my involvement is minimal at this point, any involvement that I have stems from my belief that Moravian continues to foster positive change in the lives of its students as it did for me. I fully support Moravian's mission and the work that it does to produce caring, ethical alumni who are well prepared to impact the world in a positive way.
In your opinion, what is the most important work that Moravian does? The most effective work Moravian does is providing students with an education that fosters independent, critical thinking in its students as it prepares them to be ethical and caring leaders.
Why do you volunteer/donate? Moravian changed my life as a student and provided me with a meaningful, exciting career as an adult. I am extremely grateful for those opportunities. I also believe in Moravian's mission. I continue to interact with just enough students to impress upon me how terrific Moravian's students are. Volunteering as reunion chair helps me to bring my classmates together. Our four years together at Moravian gave us many unique memories and shared experiences that have helped us maintain life-long relationships.
Which contribution/achievement are you most proud of in your work? At Moravian? In your personal life/community? It is hard to determine what I am most proud of in my work. I guess I am most proud of my relationship-building skills that fostered relationships between alumni, and between alumni and Moravian's students. Some of those relationships resulted in significant gifts for Moravian. Others helped students launch successful careers. In my personal life, I am probably most proud of my children and most gratified by my relationship with my grandchildren. I am also grateful for the opportunity to lead contemplative prayer gatherings at my church and to be helping Mercy World Organization, a Tanzanian based NGO that helps children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
What do you hope Moravian will achieve in the near future? Long term? I hope Moravian will achieve financial stability that will enable it to fulfill its mission both long and short term and that it will continue to foster a sense of community and support for its students, faculty and staff.
Does anyone in your life play a role in supporting your involvement at Moravian? Who inspires you to support Moravian? My long-term relationship with Moravian has inspired me to support Moravian.
Do you have a message to share with the Moravian University community? I am grateful to the faculty and staff who dedicate themselves to helping students reach their full potential.
Special Connection
Derek Allmon ’25 is the 2023-2024 recipient of the Bertie Francis Knisely ’69 Scholarship Fund. In the past, Bertie served on Moravian's staff as alumni relations director and enjoyed numerous interactions with Zora Martin Felton ’52, the first African American woman to graduate from Moravian and Derek's great aunt. Bertie was delighted to learn about Derek's connection to her beloved friend and that his education is supported through her scholarship fund.
