Eubanks wins GEAC 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award
SAVANNAH, Ga. – The Georgia Education Advancement Council (GEAC) honored Gail Eubanks with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award at its 50th annual conference. She has created opportunities for students in Georgia for three decades – promoting higher education excellence at three institutions: Savannah Technical College, Georgia Southern University, and Savannah State University. Eubanks is the second person to receive this honor from GEAC.
“Gail’s marketing, communications, and advancement work has received national recognition annually for the past 20 years at our College alone,” said STC President Dr. Kathy Love, who introduced Eubanks for the award. “She manages volunteers and her staff with ease, professionalism, and respect. Her advancement leadership has set records at our college for funds raised to support scholarships and programs.”
Soon after stepping into the role of executive director for institutional advancement and communications at Savannah Tech, Eubanks managed College’s first-ever major gifts campaign, leading efforts to raise more than 7.2 million dollars in five years.
This major gifts campaign included a refreshed employee-giving campaign to benefit the College’s faculty and staff scholarship. Helping Everyone Realize Opportunity or the HERO campaign became a nationally recognized initiative for best practices in fundraising, marketing, and design.
Employee giving participation was less than 1% before the HERO campaign and has averaged more than 72% annually in its eight years with an impressive 92% participation in 2019. Even during 2020 with COVID, she found creative options to maintain support with a slight dip in giving, which was only down 5%.
With the exception of the COVID year in 2020, Savannah Tech’s Foundation has maintained giving levels near the annual amount received at the conclusion of the major gifts campaign.
One of the major gifts campaign priorities was culinary arts and heritage tourism, which included a downtown location to expand training for the College’s culinary arts program. She shepherded the decade-long process of finding the perfect location.
The Foundation initially purchased the building at 7 West Bay Street for the college, so she managed the due diligence process on behalf of the foundation to verify it was worthy of purchase including environmental engineering, testing, structural analysis and managing the process for state because the state would ultimately own the building.
During her tenure working with the Savannah Technical College Foundation (2011-2022), the Foundation:
- Has awarded more than $5 million for scholarship awards and program support;
- Raised an average of $608K annually;
- More than doubled its net assets from its lowest in 2011 to its highest in 2018; and
- Earned the statewide distinction for best practices for board engagement, “Role Model Board” by the Technical College System of Georgia for seven consecutive years.
This month Eubanks retired after more than two decades in institutional advancement and marketing at Savannah Technical College and more than 35 years in the field of higher education. She plans to travel to concert vacations, spend as much time as possible on as many beaches as possible and enjoy time with family.
Founded in 1972, GEAC, Inc. (Georgia Education Advancement Council) is a statewide organization for those at public and private colleges and universities who work in educational advancement including the areas of alumni, development, public relations/public affairs, and communications. www.geac.org.
#2321 | November 18, 2022
Media Contact: Amy Shaffer, APR
912.443.5512 or ashaffer@savannahtech.edu
A unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, Savannah Technical College (Savannah Tech) is the premier provider of career-ready technical education in Coastal Georgia, offering a comprehensive range of nearly 150 market-driven programs, preparing students for high-demand careers including Aviation Technology, Cybersecurity, Health Sciences, Logistics & Supply Chain Management, Automation & Robotics, Information Technology, Culinary Arts, Public Services and more. With campuses in Chatham, Effingham, and Liberty Counties, Savannah Tech serves more than 13,000 credit and non-credit students with a variety of pathways to success, including dual enrollment programs for high school students and specialized support services for military veterans and their families. Beyond academics, Savannah Tech is an economic and community development partner, collaborating with industry leaders to provide customized training programs, assessment services, and continuing education opportunities. For more information, visit www.savannahtech.edu.
Savannah Technical College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award associate degrees, diplomas and technical certificates of credit. Questions about the accreditation of Savannah Technical College may be directed in writing to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, GA 30033-4097, by calling (404) 679-4500, or by using information available on SACSCOC’s website (www.sacscoc.org).
Savannah Technical College complies with the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG). The TCSG State Board prohibits discrimination on the basis of an individual’s age, color, disability, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, or veteran status (“protected status”). No individual shall be excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or otherwise subjected to unlawful discrimination, harassment, or retaliation under, any TCSG program or activity because of the individual’s protected status; nor shall any individual be given preferential treatment because of the individual’s protected status, except the preferential treatment may be given on the basis of veteran status when appropriate under federal or state law.