On this episode of the RAISE Podcast, Brent hosts Karl Miller Lugo, Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Engagement at The University of Texas at San Antonio.

Karl shares his journey from Puerto Rico to rural Kentucky, where he was a Breckenridge County High School Tiger, class president, and deeply involved student who later followed a family path to Western Kentucky University. There, an eighth-grade camp visit, multiple family connections, and a powerful student ambassador experience as a “Spirit Master” opened his eyes to advancement and the power of donor relationships.

He describes starting his career in admissions at Lindsay Wilson College, where the president reminded him that 75% of the institution’s income came through his office. As a twenty-two-year-old “green as grass,” he learned relationship-based recruitment, drove hours to personally pick up prospective students for campus visits, and spent long evenings on the phone—lessons in resilience, fit, and mission that still shape his work.

Karl then moves from admissions to development, back to his alma mater for major gifts, into a ten-year run at UT Austin, and later into consulting with BWF, which he calls his “PhD work in the field.” Today, at UTSA, he leads advancement and alumni engagement for a growing, research-intensive, Hispanic serving institution focused on access, success, and transformational impact in San Antonio and beyond.