SALISBURY — Catawba College’s new interim vice president of development began work Monday.

Salisbury native Meg Kluttz Dees will join the administration for a two-year period as an executive on loan from the Charlotte-based Foundation for the Carolinas.  Dees has worked with the foundation since 2008 as vice president of philanthropic advancement, affiliate development.

The Foundation for the Carolinas oversees 13 affiliate community foundations throughout North Carolina and South Carolina. Dees’ role has been to promote the five local affiliate foundations in Salisbury, Lexington, Stanly County, Cabarrus County and Rowan County. She has led the foundation’s business development efforts for individuals, families and nonprofit groups in those communities, working with professional advisers, current clients and prospects to help fund holders identify and implement their philanthropic goals.

At Catawba, Dees will lead the development staff and oversee fundraising, including cultivation and outreach to friends and donors, alumni and parent relations, area community foundations, grant writing, and planned giving.

“Meg brings a wealth of philanthropic experience to Catawba in her role as our interim vice president of development,” Catawba President Brien Lewis said in announcing Dees’ hiring. “Her contacts in the region and her knowledge and familiarity with many in our donor base have been evident in her service on our board of trustees since she joined it in 2015. I’m sure all will find her personable and a great communicator who can quickly put her many talents, insights and skills to work at Catawba.”

“This is a great opportunity for me to help advance the mission and the vision of Catawba, an institution which has played such a pivotal role in education in our state and region since its founding in 1851,” Dees said. “I am grateful to my colleagues at the Foundation for the Carolinas for allowing me this unique opportunity to put my skills and experience to work in a different yet very familiar way.”

Before joining the foundation, Dees was assistant director of the N.C. Department of Commerce’s Main Street Program, which promotes downtown revitalization and economic development through historic preservation in small towns across the state. She also served as executive director of the Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp.

She is involved in many area nonprofit organizations. She serves or has served on the boards of Piedmont Players, Rowan Museum, Preservation North Carolina, and the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame Association. At Catawba, she has served on the Center for the Environment advisory board, the board of visitors and the board of trustees. She also serves on the Catawba Foundation board.

Dees holds a master’s degree in public administration from N.C. State University and earned her bachelor of arts degree from Mary Baldwin College in Virginia.

Dees is married to Jay Dees, an attorney in Salisbury, and the two are parents of Archie and Maggie. They are members of St. John’s Lutheran Church.