New Directors Enhance Student Experience and Cultivate Donors

Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) welcomes Kristin Albright Waters, Director of Enrollment Management and Phillip A. Keefe, Director of Major Gifts and Planned Giving in the Office of Development.

Kristin Albright Waters, Director of Enrollment Management

Waters will provide administrative leadership to the One-Stop Student Services center scheduled to open in 2018. “I will be working with members of the Office of the Registrar, Financial Aid, Testing and Admissions to implement and manage the center,” she says, and plans to improve enrollment services through “timely responses to inquiries and emails, decreased wait times for office transactions and implementation of technology services for students both on and off campus.”

Before joining BMCC, Waters served as Associate Director of Operations, and prior to that, Assistant Registrar at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). She earned an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration from Frostburg (Maryland) State University, an MBA in Business Administration and Management from Capitol College of Capitol Technology University in Laurel, Maryland, and an M.A. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from Virginia Tech. Waters also earned a B.S. in Psychology from Millersville University in Pennsylvania. She has presented three times at the Middle States Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, published articles on higher education in the national journal “C&U” (College & University), been selected as a featured speaker for Baker Leadership and served on the Professional Staff Senate at UMBC.

“Living in New York City has been a dream of mine for many years,” says Waters. “I identify with the mission statement and strategic goals of the college and know that the work that I do will have a direct impact on the students of BMCC.”

Phillip A. Keefe, Director of Major Gifts and Planned Giving

“My role is to find additional sources of revenue for the college,” Keefe says. “One way to start this process is by building relationships with alumni and friends of the college, finding links between their priorities and values, and BMCC’s mission to provide a quality education to all students.”

Keefe has gained more than 30 years of experience in client service and charitable and estate planning. Prior to joining BMCC, he was Director of Planned and Major Gifts at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York. In 2002, he started working with nonprofit organizations, taking on the role of Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of The Bank of New York Charitable Services Group. Other positions have included being Vice President of Wealth Management at BNY Mellon, JP Morgan Chase and Lakeland Bank.

Keefe earned an A.S. in Criminal Justice from Nassau Community College and a B.S. in Finance and Marketing from Manhattan College. “What attracted me to BMCC is the fact that it is a community college and I am an alumnus of a community college,” he says. “I also have a daughter who went to a community college. We both benefited from the support and environment a community college provides, and went on to four-year schools with more confidence and academic skills than when we entered.”

Keefe starts his new role at BMCC as students begin the Fall 2017 semester. “It’s a new beginning for us all,” he says. “I’m looking forward to reaching out to alumni and supporters to hear their stories; reaching out to our constituents and learning what interests them. I look forward to getting to know the BMCC community inside and outside the college, growing our existing relationships and building new ones.”