Legato first to receive memorial award

November 30, 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Karen Legato, senior director of development and alumni affairs for the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, has become the first recipient of the University of Florida Foundation’s Debbie Klapp Memorial Award.

Legato was selected by a committee consisting of five Foundation administrators. Criteria for the award include unique overall achievement, strong collaboration, mentorship, and creativity in approaching job, career and life. Recipients must be employed for at least five years as a UF fundraiser.

A licensed pharmacist, Klapp, who died of cancer in 2007, served for many years as the development officer for UF’s College of Pharmacy and the Warrington College of Business Administration.

“Debbie was a consummate professional,” said Carter Boydstun, senior associate vice president for development at the foundation. “She was a strong advocate for her donors and for her unit. She was creative, aggressive and delightful and an extremely well-rounded person.”

In addition to her professional role, Klapp was an accomplished golfer and painter who “was a great team player,” Boydstun said. “Debbie embodied everything that a successful development officer should be.”

At the time of Klapp’s untimely death at the age of 56, she had not only gained the largest gift in the history of the College of Pharmacy, but also the largest gift in the history of the Warrington College of Business and UF.

“The recipient of the Debbie Klapp award most closely mirrors those exceptional professional and personal characteristics that made her loved and admired by her peers,” Boydstun added.

Legato, a member of the UF veterinary college’s development staff since 1999, has 27 years of professional fundraising experience. She has worked with donor events, corporate solicitations and campus campaigns, and was promoted into her present position at the college in 2008.

“Having known Debbie personally, I am deeply honored and touched to be the first person to receive the Debbie Klapp Memorial Award for doing the work I genuinely love,” Legato said.

Since Legato has been at UF, the college has consistently ranked in the top 10 of the 28 fundraising units across campus, both in terms of money raised and percentage of goal achieved.

Mary Ann Kiely, associate vice president for development for the UF Health Science Center and vice president for development of Shands HealthCare, said Legato had done a great job of building a well-rounded development program for the veterinary college, and in doing so, had set the bar high for other development programs.

“Karen is a hard worker, and is well-liked and respected by her peers here at UF as well as in the national veterinary organizations,” Kiely said. “Karen did an excellent job raising the profile of the new Small Animal Hospital among her constituency with her passion for animals and her respect and admiration for the faculty at UF veterinary college.”