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Celeste Gruner has been selected as Mitchell Community College’s new director of development and community relations. Reporting to President Tim Brewer, Gruner will oversee public and community relations, operations of the Mitchell Community College Endowment for Excellence (MCCEE), grants management, marketing and public information, alumni relations, and special projects.
Gruner is Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) and has an extensive background in development and fundraising serving most recently as foundation director for Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. Prior experience includes development leadership at Countryside Montessori School in Charlotte, Kellogg Community College, Battle Creek, Michigan, and Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“We are pleased to have Gruner join our team,” said Dr. Tim Brewer, Mitchell’s president. “She brings valuable experience to Mitchell. With the decline in state funding, the Endowment becomes increasingly important as we search for ways to finance unfunded and underfunded programs.”
“I am delighted to serve Mitchell Community College! I am looking forward to helping the college develop resources and advance the many educational opportunities offered to the residents of Iredell County.”
She has a bachelor’s degree in communication studies and public relations from North Central College in Naperville, Illinois and a master’s in public administration with a concentration in nonprofit leadership from Walden University in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Gruner and her husband Matt, a manager for Harris Teeter, moved to North Carolina in 2006. Their daughter, Courtney, and son-in-law, Sam, serve in the US Army Intelligence, and are stationed at Fort Campbell, KY. Emily, their youngest daughter, is a junior at UNCC.
She succeeds Harry Stillerman who left Mitchell last year to become development director at Guilford Technical Community College.
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