Carrie Besnette is Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Metropolitan State College of Denver.  Metro State, one of the largest public baccalaureate colleges in the country, serves over 21,000 students and is committed to access, diversity, teaching, and providing an urban-enriched education.  As chief advancement officer and executive director of its foundation, Besnette oversees the development, communications, and alumni departments of the College and is responsible for external and public relations, strategic marketing, and building community and campus partnerships.

Before joining Metro State, Besnette served for nearly seven years as Vice President and one of the original senior officers of the Daniels Fund, the $1B charitable legacy of Bill Daniels.  She was responsible for designing, implementing, and managing the largest single component of the foundation. In its first five years of operation, the need-based Daniels College Prep and Scholarship Program prepared several thousand youth for college and named nearly 800 Daniels Scholars.  She also created the Daniels Opportunity Awards, resulting in the distribution of $6M in grants to colleges across the Fund's four-state region to support non-traditional students. 

During her tenure at the Daniels Fund, Besnette was a "Loaned Executive" for one year to the Mayor of Denver and to the Metro Denver Sports Commission. In this assignment, she focused on two emerging community projects: a major college scholarship program to serve Denver's youth and families in perpetuity, and an initiative to cultivate and attract top-tier international sporting events to Denver and Colorado. 

From 1997-2000, Besnette was Assistant Director of State Relations at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.  Prior to moving to Colorado, she was based in Los Angeles as the Regional Director of Admissions and Alumni Affairs for the University of Arizona, her undergraduate alma mater.  During this period (1990-97), she also completed graduate degrees (M.A. and Ph.D.) at UCLA.  She now holds adjunct faculty status at the University of Denver.

An active community volunteer, Besnette is currently on boards for the Metro Denver Sports Commission, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and Chamber Foundation, and the Metro Denver Health & Wellness Commission. In 2003, she served on the transition committee for Denver's newly elected Mayor and subsequently on his Justice Center Task Force.  She is past President of the National Scholarship Providers Association, is on the Pathways to College Network executive committee, and serves as an advisor to the Educational Policy Institute.  In 2006, she received Governor's appointments to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform. 

Besnette is a program graduate of Leadership Denver, the Center for Creative Leadership, and the Colorado Institute for Leadership Training. An invited speaker, conference panelist, and op-ed author, her personal interests include travel, yoga, and a mix of athletic and outdoor endeavors.  For ten summers, Carrie freelanced as a river guide for Hatch River Expeditions in Grand Canyon National Park.  In December 2004, she climbed Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro.