Jocelyn Bangerd

Jocelyn Bangerd’s path to development started in high school after a classmate’s cancer diagnoses. She volunteered for mini-THON, a student-led fundraising program for K-12 schools. She continued to fundraise in college for Relay for Life, served as president of Colleges Against Cancer, and interned with a childhood cancer nonprofit.

“Through those experiences, I saw firsthand how philanthropy can translate into real impact,” says Jocelyn. “I realized the work I enjoyed as a volunteer could become a career.”

In 2017, Jocelyn joined the Wilmer Eye Institute as a gift officer. After five years at Wilmer, she pivoted from frontline fundraising to the Office of Advancement Services (OAS). As a project manager, Jocelyn guides projects from concept to completion — developing timelines, coordinating stakeholder engagement, and ensuring a smooth rollout.

Below Jocelyn explains the connection between fundraising and her role in OAS.

What does your job involve that others might not realize?

Most people see a project manager as someone juggling timelines and tasks, but there’s a lot more happening behind the scenes. I spend my days connecting work across teams, anticipating how changes will impact colleagues, and making sure solutions actually work in practice. My experience as a frontline gift officer gives me extra perspective on how changes affect the people using our systems, which helps me translate needs for technical teams and design projects with real-world impact.

What attracted you to Johns Hopkins?

I started my career at a small grassroots nonprofit focused on childhood cancer. There were only eight employees total; we wore a lot of hats, and the mission behind our work was very personal.

The opportunity to be a part of that same kind of purpose, but on a much larger scale, brought me to Hopkins. At Wilmer, I worked in annual giving and grateful patient fundraising. It felt like a natural fit from my previous role: mission-driven, but with the chance to grow professionally and see the impact of philanthropy across a large organization.

What do you like most about your job?

I love turning complex projects into solutions that actually work for people. There’s a lot of collaboration, problem-solving, and creative thinking involved in making sure everyone is aligned, dependencies are managed, and systems function smoothly for our DAR colleagues.

My frontline experience helps me understand the “why” behind the work, and what really excites me is seeing all the moving pieces come together and knowing the work we do behind the scenes helps our colleagues succeed and supports the mission.

What accomplishment are you most proud of?

Second to my daughter, Anniston, I’m most proud of being a first-generation college graduate. As a teenager, my main goal was to graduate college. When I look at where I am now, I think ‘teenage Jocelyn’ would be both confused and pleasantly surprised. (I know my parents are.)

What do you like to do when you are not working?

As a mom of a 4-year-old, much of my home life looks like my project manager role: managing timelines, juggling to-do lists, and figuring out who or what resources are available and when. My internal monologue is a constant stream of calendars, task reminders, and occasionally melodramatic Taylor Swift lyrics that capture a day’s work — “All Too Well.”

Tell us something we might not know about OAS.

One thing I didn’t fully appreciate when I was a frontline fundraiser was how much technical expertise exists within OAS. Many people think of OAS in terms of service desk tickets, but there’s a lot of systems and IT work happening behind the scenes. We have colleagues who write code, design complex integrations, and build tools that support the work of fundraisers across Johns Hopkins. OAS plays a huge role in keeping our systems and data running smoothly so DAR teams can focus on building relationships and advancing the mission.