Dear Colleagues,
I am writing to share that Derick Brown will be leaving his role as senior director of the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good on Aug. 1 to serve the YMCA of Greater San Francisco as its chief advancement and strategic partnerships officer. We will miss Derick greatly, but I know that he will make as valuable an impact in his new role as he has throughout his five years here at USF.
In leading the McCarthy Center, Derick has brought his unique blend of vision, inspiration, and infectious energy to advancing USF’s Jesuit mission and shaping a new generation of public service leaders. Alongside the indefatigable McCarthy Center team and a dedicated advisory board, Derick has expanded student opportunities in our nationally recognized civic engagement programs, built robust ties with local and national institutions, raised record-breaking funding, amplified USF’s public fellowship programs in Sacramento and Washington D.C., and nurtured new partnerships such as the Equity Interns Program with the Biden School of Public Policy, the Rising Youth Mentorship Program, and the Silk Financial Literacy Program. To put it simply, and in familiar terms, Derick has “crushed it.”
I am pleased to announce that McCarthy Center Director of Programs Karin Cotterman, EdD ’23, will take on the role of interim director while we undertake a national search to identify the center’s next leader. Karin is a seasoned community engagement leader; she has 15 years of experience at USF, and more than 25 years of experience leading teams focused on community engagement and public service. She is the founding director of Engage San Francisco, USF’s long-term partnership with the Fillmore neighborhood, and her scholarship and teaching include preparing faculty and students for thoughtful, ethical community engagement. I look forward to her leadership in the coming months.
We know that Derick, a newly-minted Master's in Public Leadership graduate, a parent of a 2025 alumna, and a member of the Jesuit Leadership Ignatian Colleagues Program, will remain an engaged member of the USF community. Please join me in sending him our best wishes and congratulations as he takes on this important new leadership role for a vital community-based organization in the Bay Area.
Warmly,
Eileen Chia-Ching Fung
Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs