Your Trusted Guide to Campus Partnerships

Senior Executive Director
UCLA’s Office of Foundation Relations & Corporate Philanthropy

As Senior Executive Director of UCLA’s central Office of Foundation Relations & Corporate Philanthropy, Stellar oversees a team that works with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activities, UCLA’s academic and administrative leadership, and with faculty and staff across UCLA’s schools, departments, centers, labs, and programs to develop funding partnerships between the university and a variety of philanthropic organizations.

Prior to joining UCLA, Stellar served as Senior Director of Foundation Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focused on developing funder collaborations across MIT’s research enterprise, major Institute initiatives, and programs. Her tenure in higher education includes serving as adjunct faculty in English at public and private universities.

Senior Director
UCLA’s Office of Foundation Relations & Corporate Philanthropy

Scott W. Hassler focuses on funding opportunities centered on science, engineering, law, public policy, and social sciences. He serves as liaison to the Chancellor’s Sustainable Los Angeles Grand Challenge, focused on climate, environment, and sustainability.

Scott was most recently Foundation Relations Officer at The Wilderness Society, working on federal lands conservation, climate change, and outdoor access. Previously, he served as Director of Grants and Research and Manager of Advancement Services at John F. Kennedy University. Scott has a 30-year dual career in academic fundraising and instruction, serving in faculty roles in geology at UC Berkeley and other San Francisco area institutions. Scott’s research and publications focus on the sedimentary rock record of large asteroid impacts.

Scott received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from UC Santa Barbara.

Senior Director
UCLA’s Office of Foundation Relations & Corporate Philanthropy

Laura Fuentes works with faculty and foundations to identify and develop funding opportunities across campus, with a special focus on public health, nursing, law, public policy, education, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Laura is a liaison to the Chancellor’s Depression Grand Challenge.

Previously, Laura was Associate Director of Foundation Relations at Johns Hopkins University and served as Deputy Director of the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion at JHU’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she oversaw research programs and communications. She is an experienced research program director in public health promotion and health communication, with publications in various scholarly journals.

Laura holds an M.A. in Communications from Johns Hopkins University and an M.M. in Music from Towson University.

Deputy Director
UCLA’s Office of Foundation Relations & Corporate Philanthropy

Stephanie oversees all operational aspects of our work with foundations, helping funders navigate processes involved in working with UCLA and managing coordination across offices at UCLA and the UC system.

Before joining UCLA, she was Director of Government and Foundation Relations for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for 19 years.

She has a B.A. in Art from California State University, Fullerton.

Associate Director of Development
UCLA’s Office of Foundation Relations & Corporate Philanthropy

Cathy Akers works with faculty, staff, and funders to identify and develop funding opportunities across campus. Previously, she served as Associate Director of Development, Corporate and Foundation Relations at the UCLA Library. Cathy has more than two decades of foundation, corporate, and government funding experience across a number of arts organizations in LA, including Film Independent, California Institute of the Arts, and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Cathy holds a Masters and a Bachelors in Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts and from Tufts University.

Associate Director of Development
UCLA’s Office of Foundation Relations & Corporate Philanthropy

Alice Vickers works with faculty, staff, and funders to identify and develop funding opportunities across campus. She was previously Assistant Director of Corporate and Foundation Philanthropy at the Keck Graduate Institute, where she managed corporate and foundation fundraising for the institution and for more than a decade managed corporate partnerships and contracts administration. Alice holds a certificate in copyediting from UC Berkeley and her undergraduate and graduate work are in music performance from UC Santa Barbara and Michigan State.

Associate Director of Development
UCLA’s Office of Foundation Relations & Corporate Philanthropy

Melanie Fontelera works with faculty, staff, and funders to identify and develop funding opportunities across campus. Melanie joined UCLA from the Boys & Girls Clubs of the LA Harbor, where she managed foundation and corporate fundraising in the role of Grants Manager. She holds a certificate in Grant Writing & Administration from California State University Dominguez Hills and received her Bachelors of Arts Major in Political Science and Minor in Sociology from the University of La Verne.

Fundraising Coordinator
UCLA’s Office of Foundation Relations & Corporate Philanthropy

Brynne Bergen joins us as Fundraising Coordinator to support the operational function in FRCP. Brynne relocated to LA from the East Coast, and joins UCLA from her previous role as Global Performance Strategy Associate at Wayfair, where she helped manage the performance process and communications and training materials for a workforce of 10,000+ employees. Brynne also served as the Corporate Social Responsibility Intern in the Office of Brand Partnerships & Trademark Management at the University of Connecticut and as Premium Services Intern at Fidelity Charitable. Brynne holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Human Rights from the University of Connecticut.