Donor profile

After graduating from Messiah College in 1983, Gina Gilliam embarked on a remarkable career in the public parks sector, including serving as a zookeeper and public relations director within the U.S. National Park Service. She recently retired and assumed the role of chair of the Messiah College Alumni Council.

While at Messiah, I saw how students, faculty and staff strived to live the college’s ‘Christ Preeminent’ motto,” she said. “It is more important than ever that we give back so that Messiah can continue to instill students with the important Christian values we so cherish. Future Christian leaders and dedicated servants of Christ are being educated at Messiah.

One area of particular interest to Gilliam is supporting the Messiah Fund, which helps students in many ways, including providing scholarship aid to 98% of students and supplementing tuition for all of Messiah’s student body.

Building on God’s call to generosity as outlined in 1 Timothy 6:18, she said, “As I reflect on the many scholarships I received as a student, I can’t help but be so grateful to the many people who gave to Messiah. I want to do the same for current students.”

We are so thankful to her – and all of our alumni donors – who “pay it forward” by contributing to the education of our current students as others contributed on their behalf when they were enrolled at Messiah.