A longtime Alumni Council volunteer, as well as a former member of the Development Leadership Council, Joe Serafini is convinced that development and alumni relations are complementary activities. It was alumni service that “allowed me to become more involved with faculty, alumni, administrators, and students, and to learn so much about the University,” he says. His volunteer work, whether for the Alumni Council or the Office of Development, amounts to what, for some people, would be a full-time job.

He was president of the Alumni Association of Princeton University and served as vice chair and then chair of the Executive Committee of the Alumni Council. He is former chair of the Committee to Nominate Alumni Trustees; former chair of the Careers Committee; former chair of the AC Planning and Review Committee; former chair of the Service of Remembrance; and former secretary, vice president, and president of the Princeton Association of New England. He has also been a regular Annual Giving volunteer and special gifts solicitor.

Currently, in addition to co-chairing New England’s efforts for Aspire, he is a member of the Class of 1964 Special Gifts Committee.

Serafini, who majored in English as an undergraduate, doesn’t think of himself as a fund-raiser, but is willing to “do whatever I can to help the University.” He believes the initiatives embodied in Aspire “show Princeton striking out into new areas, as well as assuring the continuing excellence of the place.”

Further volunteer efforts benefit his “other alma mater,” Cornell Law School; there, he serves as national chair of the Annual Fund, and is a member of the school’s Advisory Council.

Most of Serafini’s working hours, however, are spent at Sullivan & Worcester LLP, the Boston law firm where he is a partner; his expertise is in real estate development and finance.

Serafini lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with his wife, Nancy, an interior designer. “We started out with two children,” he says, “and ended up with four, including three Princetonians”: son John (United States Military Academy ’98); John’s wife, Daniele Flaherty Serafini ’98; daughter Kate Serafini Cox ’02; and her husband, Peter B. Cox ’01.