Annie Averitt

Annie Averitt is the Director of the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) Foundation, where she leads strategic fundraising efforts to advance world-class science and public outreach. With more than 20 years of experience in higher education and nonprofit fundraising, Annie has contributed to a wide range of successful campaigns, team initiatives, and donor engagement strategies. 

Before joining SURF, she served as Director of Advancement and External Relations at the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), where she led a successful multi-million-dollar endowment campaign, including the largest gift ever given to a U.S.-based math institute. Her previous roles include fundraising leadership at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she helped launch development programs in engineering and theoretical computing

Annie holds degrees in mechanical engineering, rhetorical studies, public communication, and physics.