Carolyn Hess Abraham has spent her career advocating for education and the arts, most recently as the Associate Dean for Advancement and Chief Advancement Officer in Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Fine Arts (CFA). From 2016 to 2024, Abraham served as a senior member of the CFA management team and led the direction, planning and execution of fundraising and alumni relations activities for the college.

A 34-year employee of Carnegie Mellon, Carolyn joined the Tepper School of Business in 1990, spending the first fifteen years at CMU in the classroom as Adjunct Professor of Business Administration.  She later served as Executive Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, implementing experiential learning and corporate sponsored project courses and co-chairing the $200M fundraising campaign to build the Tepper Quad. Hess Abraham has extensive experience in personal, corporate and foundation fundraising programs, including philanthropy, research support and experiential learning student projects.

She earned her undergraduate degree from Brown University in economics and international relations, and her MBA in finance from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. She has served as a lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and started her career in finance and strategic planning with American Express in New York and London. Carolyn is an active volunteer/board member in several Pittsburgh civic organizations.