UVA Darden’s Nonprofit Executive in Residence to Help Students Practice Board Work Before They Get in the Game

The Golub Capital Board Fellows Program at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business is expanding once again in the new academic year, as a major gift from Golub Capital announced in 2025 and surging student interest drive the program’s growth.

With Golub Capital’s support, Darden has been able to dedicate staffing and funding to expand the student-led program, including launching a new for-credit course and extending the program to serve Full-Time MBA, Executive MBA and Part-Time MBA students. Led by Professor Toni Irving and supported by Darden’s Institute for Business in Society, the program aims to prepare more than 100 Board Fellows annually for board service.

The program’s latest addition is the Golub Capital Board Fellows Nonprofit Executive in Residence for the Full-Time MBA cohort, a role that will be filled this year by Dr. Kelli Palmer, a Charlottesville-based business leader who has served on nonprofit boards at Elon University, University of Virginia Physicians Group, Peabody School, Piedmont Virginia Community College Foundation, United Way of Greater Charlottesville, Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, Live Arts, Center for Nonprofit Excellence and others.

Palmer sat down with The Darden Report to share her vision for the new role and how she hopes to create value for both Darden students serving as Board Fellows and the local nonprofits for whom they will serve for a year as nonvoting board members.

How did you begin your journey working with nonprofit boards?

I came to the space because my university explained to me as an undergraduate the importance of service. I had the opportunity to attend an Elon University Board of Trustees meeting in 1996. At that meeting, I learned for the first time that tuition doesn’t cover the cost of operating a university. That meeting was the kickoff meeting for the university’s next capital campaign, and I saw firsthand how people who graduated from the institution step up and make transformational gifts. I realized that these people don’t know me, but they’re underwriting my future. I had a silent dream during that meeting that I would become someone who could do that one day.

As I went into world and took on professional roles, I kept a hand in with my alma mater. Fast forward through years of engaging and getting into leadership roles, I’m now on the board of trustees at Elon University, and I have the opportunity to do for others what was done for me, through board governance.

The Golub Capital Board Fellows Program is another way to make sure more people have a chance to do for others.

How do you hope to translate your experience to support Darden students who are serving as Board Fellows?

The first thing is motivation. I love working with students. They are in a phenomenal place in their lives where they are choosing to learn. No one is making them get an MBA. There is internal motivation there. Being a Board Fellow and learning about board service firsthand is the challenge in the opportunity, and that is where students’ growth will happen. I can walk alongside them as they have this learning experience and demystify it, or I can be a sounding board for their nonprofit capacity building projects.

My hope is by being enthusiastically present, connections will come about. There are a lot of demands on MBA students’ time. Saying, “Hey, I’m here. I’m happy to help with your thought process and be a place of safe growth” might be what they need to help them succeed.

I grew up in the nonprofit world at a time when people who were placed in a high-potential program at their company or who were appointed to vice president, they were told to serve on a board. I was on boards with folks who didn’t always understand the responsibilities of the commitment, the opportunities associated with it and how to navigate it all in ways that created mutual benefit. This program creates education and practice for individuals who are future leaders of commercial enterprises. Anytime you get to practice before you get in the game, you perform so much better.

What is one foundational piece of advice you will share with Board Fellows as they join local nonprofit boards as nonvoting members?

Get to know everyone who serves on the board with you as well as the directly related staff. The people in the boardroom are a team. It’s important to understand which capabilities are in the room and which aren’t. Sometimes board work involves saying, “We don’t know the answer to a question and need resources to answer it.” It’s also important to understand who is thinking from which perspectives, relative to the problems being solved.

We like to think governance all occurs in the board meeting. In reality, governance is more dynamic and expansive, and asking a clarifying question or engaging someone who can influence a decision are often extracurricular to the meeting proper.

Getting to know everyone is critical to moving as quickly and efficiently as the nonprofit needs you to move. As a fellow, you have one year to get a baseline understanding of the nonprofit, identify a problem in partnership with the organization, then work to build capacity through your Board Fellows project. That’s a fast turnaround, and relationships can help you accelerate your progress.

As a member of several Charlottesville-area boards, you’ve seen the impacts the University of Virginia community can have on local nonprofit work. What does the work of Board Fellows mean to the organizations they support?

Nonprofits are notoriously trying to do more with less. They exist because there’s an urgent need in the community, and they’re trying to optimize what they do, who they serve and the mission they fill. They do this on philanthropic dollars and sometimes a little bit of grant money, so their resources are variable and not as plentiful as a corporate environment.

Knowing that, to have experienced, curious people at the height of their intellectual acuity applying their focus and energy to these places means the world to the nonprofits they serve. Students bring value through their presence, and then also through the capacity building project each fellow defines and executes in partnership with their nonprofit. That is a pro bono gift. The projects are something that would have taken dollars that could have been deployed elsewhere or might not have been done at all, if not for students doing the work.

The impact has been and will be significant. I’ve been talking to leaders around the Charlottesville nonprofit landscape to let them know I’m serving in the executive-in-residence role, and people have been coming to me with a different light in their eyes to talk about what they imagine could happen. From students’ data and analytical capabilities to their quantitative business skills to their conceptual understandings of leadership, all those skills are in high demand from nonprofits.

Why is it important that Darden students and other members of the UVA community support local nonprofit initiatives?

As UVA constituents, we have the benefit of living in this place and space. The Charlottesville area wouldn’t be what it is without all the individuals that make up this community. We are all part of one thing. UVA and Darden are not a separate thing, distinct from the Charlottesville community. Those who have benefited the most have responsibilities for those among us who need the most.

I think of the town-gown relationship. Even more, I think of the uniqueness of UVA’s historic landscape. We are an institution of Thomas Jefferson’s creation. We were built by enslaved people, among others, and we have benefited since our founding from the wisdom and experience of people from all over the world. We hold a charter from the Commonwealth of Virginia, and we have a responsibility to do right and well for the Commonwealth. How we can do that is by starting where we are, in our local community.

There’s a moral imperative and an expectation by our governing documents to behave in this way. But there’s also mutual benefit. Let us not think we are just givers and nonprofits are just receivers. There is a wonderful opportunity to learn in this place and have some growth of your own. The Board Fellow learning experience is mutual. The benefit is two ways.

Flash forward to the end of your year as executive in residence. How would you define success?

If I have interacted with each of the Board Fellows and each of the nonprofits, and through that, there is a critical mass of a-ha moments. These are early days for the role, and we don’t know exactly what the model is for success. So, I’m seeking impact, be it bottom line or top thought or driving engagement and connectiveness to strengthen relationships. Building a network is seed planting that sometimes doesn’t grow until the next season or further. If I deliver that kind of impact, I’ll consider it a success.