During her 25-year career in development, Lissie Diringer has fostered the growth of a broad range of mission-driven non-profit institutions. 

She served most recently as Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, managing development, alumni relations and communications teams across HUC’s four campus system in the U.S. and Jerusalem, raising more than $15 million annually and stewarding the organization through unexpected leadership transitions following the tragic death of HUC President Aaron Panken in a plane crash.

Previously, Diringer served as Director of Development for the New York University Child Study Center, where she led a $140 million capital campaign and grew the annual fund to $9 million. She created the first major gifts program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she rose to Deputy Chief Development Officer for Major Gifts, managing the $650 million capital campaign. Prior to the Metropolitan Museum, she was Vice President and Account Supervisor at LCF&L Advertising. Her clients included Bristol-Myers Squibb, Clairol, General Mills, and Ross Laboratories for whom she launched cross-category product lines and new products promoted by award-winning television advertising.  Her early career encompassed development, educational programming, and editorial work for Citymeals-on-Wheels, UJA-Federation of New York’s Capital Campaign, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Lilith Magazine.

As the principal of Lissie Diringer Development Consulting, Diringer’s clients have included American Academy in Rome, International Center of Photography, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Breakthrough New York, National Academy Foundation, and Global Kids among others.

She received an A.B. in American Civilization, with a focus on 20th-century gender, ethnicity, and religion, from Brown University, and was a visiting student at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. During her college summers she interned with the Jewish Arts Festival of Long Island and the American Jewish Committee and studied at Hebrew University’s Givat Ram campus.

Diringer is a former Trustee and Development Committee Chair at Temple Shaaray Tefila of New York City. She also served as a member of the Dalton Council, an advisory group of parents supporting the Dalton School’s Board of Trustees, and has chaired Task Forces on geographic diversity, peer mentoring, and academic administration. Diringer is a Women’s Launch Pad Mentor on the Brown University Women’s Leadership Council.

Diringer taught graduate courses in the Masters of Science in Fundraising Management Program at of the School of Continuing Education at Columbia University, was a freelance book reviewer for Publishers Weekly, and has been a Conference Presenter at AFP/s Fundraising Day in New York and the Art Museum Development Association Annual Conference.