Karla Aho

Biography

Karla is the Assistant Vice President for Advancement. She leads comprehensive advancement and gift planning programs to maximize individual, and foundation philanthropic support to Michigan Tech. Currently, she specializes in strategy for major outright and planned gifts, focusing on educating alumni and friends about gift-planning options that can help meet their personal and charitable goals.

With a background in small business ownership, information systems, and operations management, Karla is also interested in using data to identify, enhance, and predict constituent and donor engagement.

Karla joined Michigan Tech in 2004, where she led K-12 Outreach programming. In 2008, she joined the Advancement team for the Generations of Discovery capital campaign. Karla has an MPA from Northern Michigan University and a BS in operations management and information systems from Michigan Tech's College of Business. She additionally holds a certified fundraising executive credential from CFRE International and a certified specialist in planned giving (CSPG) designation from the American Institute for Philanthropic Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

Karla is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and serves on the Education Advisory Committee, the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners (CGP), and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB).

A lifelong resident of the Copper Country, Karla and her husband, Jim, enjoy spending time partridge hunting, on their motorcycle, and at their summer lake cottage.