Angelina Altobellis photo by Robert Jordan

Growing up on the beaches outside of Jacksonville, University advancement associate Angelina Altobellis embraces the wonderful peculiarities of Florida—the love of both history and progress—with an overlay of Southern graciousness. Angelina has now come to Mississippi—by way of Massachusetts and Texas—to assist in fundraising for the Center. In July 2003 Altobellis became its first advancement associate.

When Jim and Madeleine McMullan of Lake Forest, Illinois, sought to reconnect with Mississippi and the South, they chose to do it through the Center. In addition to two McMullan Professorships in Southern Studies, the McMullans funded a position at the University of Mississippi Foundation for a full-time fundraiser. “We are so fortunate to have Angelina in this position,” said Jim McMullan. “Her graciousness and her intellect are the perfect combination for the challenges that face her. Madeleine and I believe she can make a difference in the future of the Center.”

Altobellis came to the Center from the University of Texas at Austin where she was an intern at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center while working on a degree in comparative literature. She moved to Oxford after completing her M.A. degree in 2002. “When I moved here, I decided to be patient and wait for a job to open at the Center,” said Altobellis. “I learned to love working for a humanities center at Texas, and this place is so vital—it is so exciting.”

Altobellis received B.A. degrees in both French and art history at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and, while an undergraduate, spent a year in Paris studying French. She returned to the U.S. to intern at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut.

Altobellis’s resource development plan for the Center has several components. Number one on her list at present is matching the $500,000 challenge the Phil Hardin Foundation awarded in 2001 to assist with the development of the Endowment for the Future of the South. “Based around an interdisciplinary program, the endowment will study issues and problems that continue to challenge the Deep South, Mississippi, and her nearest neighbors,” said Altobellis. “At its core, it is a process for discovering ways for economic development. I hope to bring in a wide range of donors—make it a regional initiative–a regional alliance.”

Because of her strong academic background, Angelina also recognizes the importance of faculty development, money for faculty support, for books, travel, and other resources for academic work. As a former teacher—professor of history at Millsaps—Madeleine McMullan encourages this focus on faculty. “It is my and Jim’s wish that the academic work of the Center remain strong. The work by the faculty is at the heart of it,” she said.

“The Center has such a dynamic advisory board,” said Altobellis. “This, along with the fact that I’m supporting a terrific and stimulating group of people, makes my job enviable.”

Linda Peal