staff bios
lori williamson
Senior Director of Development, Foundation Relations
Lori Williamson joined the University of Illinois Corporate and Foundation Relations staff in fall 2003 as Associate Director. She was appointed Senior Director of Development to oversee the University’s foundation relations efforts in August 2005. Her responsibilities include working with faculty members and units to identify foundation sponsors, preparing funding proposals for research and teaching initiatives, and developing institutional relationships with foundations. Prior to assuming her position in CFR, Dr. Williamson served as Director of Development and Communications in the UI office of International Programs and Studies, where she was responsible for expanding the resource base for international programs through grants and gifts from individuals, foundations, companies and government agencies.
Dr. Williamson previously spent thirteen years on the staff of the College of Business where she held positions as grants consultant, editor and annual funds manager. From 1993 to 1999, she served as Associate Director of the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) responsible for managing CIBER’s academic and outreach programs and securing external support for the center.
Dr. Williamson received a Ph.D. in French Studies from the University of Illinois and served as Assistant Professor of French in the Romance Languages Department at the University of Tennessee—Knoxville. She has also taught as a French instructor at Parkland College and the University of Illinois. She obtained a Certificate in Fundraising Management from the Fundraising School at Indiana University in Indianapolis in 2003.
janelle weatherford
associate Director of Development, Foundation Relations
Janelle Weatherford came to Urbana-Champaign in 1992 from Fresno, California. She earned a B.A. in Russian from California State University Fresno in 1987, an M.A. in Russian from the University of Arizona in 1990, and completed coursework towards a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1995.
She began her career as an Adjunct Lecturer of Russian at California State University, Fresno. She also taught Russian at Illinois as a Teaching Assistant from 1992 through 1995. For almost ten years, Ms. Weatherford worked in the field of computer-assisted training and education as an instructional designer and project manager. Her career at Illinois began in 2002 as a Lead Instructional Designer on the UI-Integrate project. Starting in 2003, she served as Associate Director of the European Union Center for four years. She was named Associate Director of Foundation Relations in September of 2007. In this role she is responsible for cultivating, soliciting and providing stewardship for a portfolio of foundation donors and prospects. She works with units, faculty and senior administrators to identify priority projects and match with foundation interests and provides proposal-writing assistance.
nancy wilson
associate Director of advancement, Foundation Relations
Nancy Wilson began her academic career in 1989 as an adjunct faculty member at the Lumpkin College of Business at Eastern Illinois University (EIU) where she taught computer science programming and theory. While at Eastern, she also served as the Director of Administration for the business college where she was responsible for personnel, budgeting, facilities and development work. Wilson also directed the Business and Technology Institute—the outreach arm of the college—where she coordinated faculty consulting engagements, grants, contracts, workforce training and economic development for the region.
In 1996, Ms. Wilson began work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the College of Commerce as a business manager providing budget, forecasting and accounting support to various units within the college. In 1998, she assumed her role as Director of Administration for International Program and Studies where she managed budget and human resource functions and provided grant support to the eight reporting units.
From 2001 to 2008, Ms. Wilson served as a grants and program analyst for the National Council of Teachers of English in Urbana, IL, followed by her role as Director of Administration where she was involved in grantsmanship, development, volunteer coordination, strategic governance, policy development, feasibility studies and library/archives functions of the Council.
In February 2008, Ms. Wilson returned to the University of Illinois as Associate Director for Foundation Relations where she conducts research to identify new foundation prospects, monitors ongoing and emerging opportunities with current foundation partners, assists in proposal preparation and submission, and prepares briefings and grant reports.
In addition to her work in academia, Ms. Wilson has served as executive vice-president of a privately-owned company and as the sole proprietor of a business consulting enterprise.
Ms. Wilson earned her Bachelor of Science in Business from EIU in 1985 and a Master of Business Administration in 1988.
nancy Castro
associate Director of advancement, Foundation Relations
Nancy Castro came to Urbana-Champaign in the fall of 2001. She earned her B.A. in Comparative Literature from Brown University in 1990. In 1998, she received a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, from which she also holds M.A. and M.Phil. degrees, and where she taught Rhetoric and American Literature. She has since served as an Assistant Professor of English, specializing in Caribbean and U.S. Literatures, at Baruch College, CUNY (1998-1999), and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2001-2009). She has published on the subject of the Caribbean novel and, in 2002-2003, was a fellow of the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities.
Dr. Castro has also worked in the consumer magazine industry in New York City. Prior to her arrival at Illinois, she was the Managing Editor of Worth Magazine (2000-2001), a finance and lifestyle magazine for “high-net-worth” individuals, with a circulation of more than 500,000. She also held editorial positions as Assistant Managing Editor of Worth (2000), Copy Chief of Details Magazine at Condé Nast (1999-2000), Managing Editor of the Time Out Guide to New York (1998), and Copy Editor at Time Out New York Magazine (1997-1998).
Nancy's responsibilities in Foundation Relations include foundation research and proposal development, with a focus on the humanities and social sciences.
cinda dalton
office manager, Foundation Relations
Cinda Dalton started her career with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1985 where she served in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry. Beginning in 1987, Ms. Dalton provided support to the Office of Publications and Marketing followed by her work in the Office of Foundation Relations starting in 2003. In her current role as office manager, Ms. Dalton assists the senior director and other office personnel in foundation visits, campus events and provides general oversight to unit operations.