The USC Price School of Public Policy received a gift of $100,000 from Red and Sheri Cavaney to establish the Red and Sheri Cavaney Endowed Scholarship for Nonprofit Leadership. This is the first scholarship gift established for the school’s new master of nonprofit leadership and management degree, which was announced in 2014.

The scholarship will be awarded to an outstanding student who demonstrates exceptional academics, professional accomplishments and future promise in the field of nonprofit leadership.

Students affiliated with a trade or professional association will be especially competitive for this scholarship, given Red and Sheri’s longtime involvement in a number of trade and professional organizations.

I am particularly honored to be among the first to help support USC’s emphasis in training leaders for the association management profession.

Red Cavaney

“The nonprofit sector will play an increasingly vital role in our nation and in the global world in the decades ahead,” Red Cavaney said. “Spending the majority of my career in the nonprofit association profession and as the past chairman of the American Society of Association Executives, I am particularly honored to be among the first to help support USC’s emphasis in training leaders for the association management profession.”

Distinguished careers

Red Cavaney ’64 boasts a distinguished career spanning both the public and private sector. He served three combat tours in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War.

He went on to work in the White House for presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald R. Ford and later served as the deputy assistant to the president for public liaison under President Ronald Reagan. In January 2013, after serving as the CEO for numerous trade associations for more than 25 years, he retired as the senior vice president of government affairs at ConocoPhillips and now serves as chairman of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation.

Sheri Cavaney was most recently vice president of practice mobility and state regulatory and legislative affairs for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the national professional association. In this position, she had responsibility for overseeing state legislative and regulatory relations for the Institute. She started her career as deputy administrative assistant to former U.S. Sen. Alan Dixon (D-Ill.).

Red and the Cavaney family have a long history with USC. His parents (Byron Cavaney ’38 and Josephine Gannon Cavaney ’39), as well as his siblings (Carol Cavaney Jones ’69 and Patrick Cavaney ’80) and his wife (Tamela Ann Miller Cavaney ’80), are USC graduates. Karey Cavaney, Patrick and Tami’s daughter, enrolled at USC last fall.

Red has remained active in Trojan activities like the Skull and Dagger Society, USC’s oldest honor society, and recently served on his 50th Reunion Committee last fall. In addition, he and Sheri are members of the USC Associates and also pledged an additional $50,000 to support the Red and Sheri Cavaney Graduate Scholarship for Veterans Fund at USC Price.

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