November 13, 2023
Dear Tufts community,
It is my pleasure to share with you today the appointment of Joshua Else as the next senior vice president of advancement at Tufts University and will assume his role on February 5, 2024. He will succeed Eric Johnson who, as announced before, will transition to a new role as senior philanthropic advisor to the president.
Josh currently serves as the associate vice president for development and alumni relations at Johns Hopkins University, and we had an opportunity to be colleagues during my seven years there as provost. He has had an accomplished fundraising career at Hopkins for the past two decades and is a key part of a highly successful, metrics-driven team which set ambitious fundraising goals and achieved them. I am confident that his skillset and expertise, along with his warm and thoughtful approach to engaging with alumni and donors, will serve Tufts well.
Over the past few months, Josh met with a group of trustees, the members of my senior leadership team, the school deans, and the advancement senior leadership team. He impressed everyone who met him and the feedback I received from everyone was overwhelmingly positive. Those who met him felt that his experience and strength as a fundraiser, his ability to build strong relationships both internally and externally, and his ability to listen came through strongly. Most importantly everyone felt that Josh would have no issues fitting into the Tufts culture where collegiality and collaboration are important.
I hope you will join me in extending best wishes to Josh on his appointment and learning more about him in TuftsNow. I look forward to the important work that we will do together—with the partnership of the entire community—in service of Tufts.
Best regards,
Sunil Kumar