Petersen Named To AmeriCares Post

 NEW CANAAN –– Joan M. Petersen of Newtown has been appointed senior vice president and director of development of AmeriCares, the humanitarian aid and disaster relief organization.

 “The number one skill in development and fundraising,” she says, “is listening and respecting what people say.”

Ms Petersen has been engaged as a fundraiser for 17 years and was formerly director of fundraising for the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University.

Prior to that she was assistant dean of development and alumni relations at the New York University School of Law, associate director of development at Stanford University in California, deputy director of the New York office of Brown University, and worked in similar capacities at Columbia University.

She is a native of Freehold, N.J., and a member of Women in Financial Development.

AmeriCares has delivered more than $3.2 in humanitarian relief to 137 countries since 1982. The organization is moving its headquarters to Stamford in the next few weeks.