Crouse Health Foundation has a new executive director

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Crouse Health announced it has appointed Heather Waters as executive director of the Crouse Health Foundation.

Waters succeeds Carrie Berse in the role, Robert Allen, VP of communications & government affairs at Crouse Health, tells CNYBJ in an email. Berse’s LinkedIn profile indicates she retired from the position in November 2021 after leading the foundation for more than 28 years.

Kathleen Miller-Murphy had been serving as the foundation’s interim director.

As executive director of the Crouse Health Foundation, Waters will provide leadership and strategic direction for all foundation activities and operations “in support of the Crouse Health mission,” per a Crouse Health news release. That includes donor stewardship, major gifts, planned giving, cultivation and solicitation of major gift prospects, capital campaign oversight and special events.

Waters most recently served as head of Impact for Akili Ventures in Nairobi, Kenya, where she was responsible for raising capital for infrastructure development, Crouse Health said.

Prior to that, Waters was consulting co-executive director for the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Fayetteville, where she directed operations and fundraising for the foundation and historic home.

Waters previously served as assistant dean for advancement for Syracuse University’s School of Education from 2013-2021. In that role, she increased annual fundraising from $700,000 to $4 million and raised more than $30 million in gifts and grants, per the release.