Bonnie Marks will spearhead activities to enlist support and raise nearly $500,000 from alumni of the Case Western Reserve University School of Dentistry as part of the dental school's Partners in Progress campaign.

The activities are part of her responsibilities as the new director of the annual fund, special gifts and alumni relations for the dental school.

CWRU is familiar to the Flora Stone Mather College graduate, who earned her bachelor's degree in English in 1968.

After working for the past four years at Freely Inc., a family-run manufacturing firm, Marks returned to CWRU in November to expand and increase alumni participation at the dental school. She will work closely with the dental school faculty and staff to continue plans to renovate dental school clinics and classrooms and to endow professorships and scholarships.

Marks brings to CWRU her development expertise in the fields of health and human services. For 10 years, she ran the development consultant firm of Bonnie R. Marks Inc. As a former associate director of development and marketing for Montefiore Home, she was an integral part in raising $16 million for Montefiore's capital campaign fund to move the home from Cleveland Heights and to build new health care and living facilities at 27080 Cedar Road in Beachwood during the 1980s.

Prior to entering development, she took graduate education courses at Hunter College in New York City and at John Carroll University. She also taught high school classes at Hebrew Academy in Cleveland Heights.