Lawrence D. P. “Larry” Vellani has more than twenty-five years experience in building, funding and leading research, education, policy development and direct service organizations in Indiana, North Carolina and Ohio, and has served as a technical consultant to public and private agencies in more than a dozen additional states.  In January 2003, he joined Elon University’s Office of Institutional Advancement as director of corporate & foundation relations to strengthen Elon's commitment from foundations and other philanthropic institutions, and to work with senior administrators and faculty to develop major university initiatives and to achieve institutional priorities.

           Prior to his current position with Elon, Larry served as an assistant administrator in  the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), advising local jurisdictions and community-based organizations with the establishment and continuous quality improvement of sentencing programs, and coaching public and private agencies in organizational development and change (1994 – 2002).  Previous professional posts have included serving as director of the Indiana Sentencing Resource Center, an agency of the Indiana state courts (1988 – 1994); executive director of Community Corrections Resources, Inc. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (1986 – 1988), and co-executive director of the North Carolina Prison and Jail Project, Inc. in Durham, North Carolina (1980 – 1986). 

      Since January 1996, Larry has served as an adjunct lecturer in Elon University’s Center for Public Affairs, a program of the University’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration.  In addition to supervising interns and advising the University’s mock trial team, he has authored and taught courses on organizational behavior, judicial administration and comparative criminal justice.  His judicial and criminal justice courses include overnight residence on the Qualla Indian Boundary, the sub-national jurisdiction of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians. 

            A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the Ohio State University and Indiana University, with degrees in history, education, modern languages and public administration, Larry lives with his wife, Peggy Boswell, curator of the Scott Family Collection at the Alamance Community College, and their two children in Mebane, North Carolina.