Gloria Greiner-Callihan, DAR-ling of the week, 2-5-2018
Tell us about your journey from a law school career to the opera to VCU DAR.
What a journey! I actually always wanted to be a physician. I was in the midst of applying to med school and had taken the MCAT, but was married to a physician who was somewhat older than I, who suddenly announced that we probably shouldn’t have children if we were going to be a two-doctor family. As I was five months pregnant at the time, that put a bit of a damper on my application process. To give him his due, he offered to pay for any other graduate education I might choose, so I chose the law. I was on a debate scholarship in college, and most of my friends were going that route, so it seemed like it might be fun!
And it was fun! I LOVED every minute of it! It was NOT however, my first love …
After law school and a foray into the practice of law, I started taking voice lessons as a hobby. (Kind of like primal-scream therapy!) My teacher was the vocal coach for Opera Memphis, he had me audition and I started singing with them. Mostly chorus and small roles. I branched out a bit into some minor roles in regional opera, but by then – with three children – my law practice was becoming more of a drag than anything else. Someone always LOST! (I HATE to lose!) I had been holding opera chorus parties for a few years in my crazy 100-plus-year-old house that had (sounds pretentious to say, but it did) a BALLROOM in it! So, being good fundraisers, the opera company asked me to be on their board. When they lost their fundraiser, they asked if I would consider doing it.
What an opportunity. No one LOSES!!!! Of course, I had NO idea how to go about fundraising – and no mentor. I joined AFP in Memphis, went to a conference and met Karla Williams, ACFRE, who changed the course of my career! She taught in the St. Mary’s University of Minnesota master’s program in philanthropy and development, and she convinced me to apply to that program. It was the best three summers. I lived in a dorm for three weeks. As an adult! (Well, sort of. Not exactly sure I behaved as an adult 100 percent of the time!) I met some wonderful friends – powerful mentors – with whom I am in contact today.
A couple of years later, I moved from the opera to a chamber orchestra. I wrote my thank you notes in the balcony during rehearsal weeks. Can you imagine? The most beautiful music in the world produces VERY grateful thank you notes. One of my board members was a physician at the University of Tennessee, and when the fundraising position for medicine opened up, he encouraged me to apply. It was wonderful! I didn’t get to be a physician, but I could raise the money that would help cure people. And I LOVE talking science!
I have been really lucky in my career. I was an LDO for six weeks at Tennessee Health Science Center when we got a new vice chancellor. She promoted me to assistant vice chancellor for development. In my time there, I also got to be an interim associate vice chancellor in alumni relations for nearly a year. It was a fun year, but an intense year, straddling those two high-pressure positions at the same time.
I got divorced, my children moved away and Memphis (I’m a native Texan) was not where I really longed to be. All three of my kids (where my heart is) lived in New York City at the time, so I focused my job search from just south of NYC to Richmond as the absolute southernmost point I wanted to go. VOILA! Here I am! Dentistry has been wonderful. Dentists are an amazing group of people with big hearts (and are so much fun!)
You’re a high-energy person. That enthusiasm must be contagious to your colleagues and base of dentistry graduates. Tell us about the most over-the-top event you’ve had a hand in planning.
I don’t know if my enthusiasm is contagious to my colleagues, but the colleagues on my team make ME enthusiastic! I have met wonderful talent since I came to VCU and really love our staff, both present and past. If you’ve ever come to Reunion Weekend, it will probably come as no surprise to hear our over-the-top events happen there. Kendra Novey, assistant director for reunion and student engagement, is brilliant when it comes to orchestrating an event that will really resonate with the audience she plans for. Our “Blast from the Past Bash” is a cross of Woodstock-era peace and love with “Saturday Night Fever.” We have a lighted dance floor, people in mini skirts, go-go boots, long wigs, mirrored balls and ELVIS!!! He’s alive and well and dancing all night long. (As a Memphian all those years, I knew Elvis HAD to be there!!!) The dean’s band, Vertical Dimension, plays a couple of sets, and we have two jumbo screens that reflect our Instagram pics from the weekend and the dance cam. Watch the conga line that forms as the students encourage dentists attending the event to dance around the room and tell me you wouldn’t have a wonderful time. Kendra uses a quote from an alumnus in some of our materials that says something along the lines of, “I’ve been to all my reunions: high school, college and dental school, but the best party I’ve been to in my life is the Blast from the Past!” That quote makes me giggle. It’s all hands on deck, and you’ll see all of our staff out there having a good time with our guests. It’s an exhausting weekend, but watching our alumni come together and relive their youth is worth a lot of lost sleep.
My happy place is always with my children. I have three plus two: Elisabeth, Patrick and Katie, plus two furries: Yorkshire terriers Nathan (who is so beautiful, I deemed him a “hot dog”) and Hairy Pawter, who, as an infant, was all black with a white fur “scar” on his forehead.