Tom Maness originally came to VCU in 2018 as associate dean and chief development officer for the School of Medicine. He was appointed to his current role in January 2019 and has responsibility for philanthropic support across the health sciences campus including the colleges and schools of Dentistry, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. This also includes the Massey Cancer Center as well as the hospitals, clinics and programs of VCU Health. 

He has more than 20 years of experience in the field of philanthropy mostly at academic medical centers. Prior to his time at VCU, he served as AVP for annual, major and planned giving at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he had responsibility for all individual giving programs. He also has extensive experience in enhancing and expanding grateful patient and family programs through partnership with physicians, researchers and other health care providers. 

Prior to joining Children’s National, he served in the joint development office of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan. He served in various roles including major gifts officer, associate director of major gifts and manager of major gifts. His management duties included building and leading teams of gift officers in major and mid-level giving as well as overseeing numerous donor affinity groups. During this time, Tom participated in three comprehensive campaigns of $1 billion or more. 

He holds a master’s of public administration in public policy and nonprofit management from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University.