Development staff directory

Jay Davenport began his position as vice president for Development and Alumni Relations in September 2017. Before joining VCU, Davenport served as associate vice president of individual giving and campaign management at Wake Forest University.

As VCU’s chief development officer, Davenport leads development and alumni engagement efforts for both the university and VCU Health. Areas under his purview include advancement services, alumni relations, annual giving, corporate and foundation relations, development and alumni communications, donor relations, regional philanthropy and the universitywide development staff.

Davenport has served in several roles at Wake Forest since 2010, including as assistant vice president of college development, assistant vice president of major gifts and associate vice president and campaign director. Previously, Davenport was director of development and team leader at Rice University and held fundraising positions as a college development director at the University of Memphis College of Business and Wright State University College of Engineering. He began his higher education career as an assistant dean of admissions at Wittenberg University in 1995.

Davenport holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Xavier University and a master's degree in higher education administration from Ball State University.

Shannon Gravitt previously worked at McGuireWoods, where she supported the executive director and chief officers of the firm. Gravitt has almost 20 years of experience supporting senior executives in organizations as diverse as Bank of America, HDL, Circuit City and the University of Richmond. She brings a proactive and flexible approach to managing multiple duties within the workplace. Gravitt graduated from VCU with a bachelor's in criminal justice.

Michael Morelius comes from St. Edward’s University, where he oversaw the closing of $40 million in new gifts. He managed all major gift and planned giving officers responsible for portfolios of donors with minimum $25,000 gift capacity as well as the corporate and foundation relations office and annual giving program. His role at VCU is to help increase the fundraising efforts of the Monroe Park Campus schools and colleges, VCU Athletics and the Institute for Contemporary Art.

From August 2011 to October 2015, Morelius was director of development for the College of Science for the Texas A&M Foundation. As team lead, he facilitated raising $62 million. He managed a portfolio of 170 households capable of making commitments of $100,000 or more and maintained an average of 21 donor and qualification visits per month.

Morelius was director of development at Rice University from October 2006 to July 2011. He began his fundraising career as a student caller at Texas A&M. Over the course of his career, he has directly helped to raise more than $115 million.

He is a graduate of Texas A&M, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1999. He and his wife, Kristen, have two children, Kristopher and Brynne Leigh.