Last Look: Lisa Christensen, Marlboro College

We spoke with Lisa Christensen, Marlboro’s chief advancement officer, about the unique college’s equally unique development mission, as well as some of its fundraising highs and lows.

FundRaising Success: Can you give me a brief history of Marlboro College?
Lisa Christensen: Marlboro’s story begins at the end of World War II in Biarritz, France, where Walter Hendricks, a former Amherst scholar teaching English at Illinois [Institute of Technology], was recruited to teach at a makeshift university for U.S. soldiers waiting to be sent back to the states. Hendricks was impressed by the GIs’ can-do attitude and spirit of personal investment in what they were learning. He envisioned a community of learners, living and working together democratically under the rules of the New England town meeting, unhindered by titles or academic rank.