Development staff directory

Elizabeth Bass has worked in higher education and the nonprofit sector for 20 years, with an emphasis on volunteer training and management, community outreach and collegiate civic engagement. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 1999 with a bachelor’s in sociology and from VCU in 2003 with a master’s in social work.

As associate vice president for alumni relations, Elizabeth leads a team of alumni and student engagement professionals who work with alumni, students and campus partners across the university. She oversees all areas of alumni programming, supports the VCU Alumni Council and serves on the senior leadership team for the vice president for development and alumni relations. 

Elizabeth served for seven years as executive director of the Virginia Mentoring Partnership, a statewide nonprofit organization that partners with schools, universities, corporations and nonprofit organizations to increase the quality and quantity of mentoring relationships and to promote effective youth mentoring across the commonwealth. She also held numerous roles, including executive director, at Madison House, the nonprofit student volunteer center at the University of Virginia from 2003-13, where she worked with students, alumni, and community and university partners and donors to fulfill its mission of leadership and service to the Charlottesville community. 

She is a member of the 2015 Class of Leadership Metro Richmond, former board chair of the Grace Covenant Child Development Center and AMP! Metro Richmond boards, and currently serves in a leadership role in the family and community engagement efforts at Good Shepherd Episcopal School. Elizabeth lives in Midlothian with her husband, Will Cleland, and her son, Henry.

Latisha Taylor is the associate director of alumni outreach and engagement for alumni career programs. Taylor, a graduate of both Old Dominion University and George Mason University, previously worked in VCU’s central career services unit. She will provide alumni with meaningful opportunities to network, in-person and virtually, as she builds out a programming model that focuses on the industries in which our alumni work and not simply the academic areas in which they received a degree. Taylor will collaborate across the university in her efforts to engage alumni and strengthen their professional network.