Andrea Spahr

Andrea Spahr

Degree: 2002, MPA

Job Title: Senior Marketing Manager, Global Institutional Services, Wilmington Trust

​Andrea Spahr is a native of Milford, Delaware. She became passionate about environmental issues in high school and was accepted to the University of Delaware’s College of Agriculture where she earned a B.S. in Entomology/Applied Ecology and Wildlife Conservation in 1998. By taking opportunities to study abroad in Costa Rica and live in Mexico after college, Andrea became fluent in Spanish and passionate about Latin American culture and communities. This same passion is what inspired her to learn more about how Spanish speaking families were living in Delaware. She applied to the Master of Public Administration program in the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration to focus her studies on barriers Limited English Proficient (LEP) families experience when navigating the public education system.

This incredibly valuable opportunity that Andrea had to study with Dr. Karen Curtis, on the annual poverty study for Delaware taught her so much about current issues faced by families challenged to make ends meet, and the local nonprofits whose mission it is to support them. A summer internship at a Hispanic based nonprofit helped her to see up close how Spanish-speaking families were struggling both financially and with the additional language barrier. Her first full time role after graduate school was the YWCA of Delaware, where her career in marketing began.

After three years in the role, having been promoted to marketing manager, Andrea was recruited by the Wilmington Trust marketing department and has worked for the company for the past 19 years.

While financial services is a long way from entomology or nonprofit leadership, her education particularly at the Biden School taught her research skills, the importance of outcomes-driven work, strengthened her writing and speaking abilities, and helped her to develop into a well-rounded professional who has been able to add value well outside of her day to day responsibilities as a marketing manager.

Her experience and relationships with the nonprofit community has also made her a natural fit for managing her company’s local charitable strategy. Her fluency in Spanish led to her being recruited by a company/M&T to join Hispanic-based nonprofit boards. Andrea’s passion and comfort level working with diverse communities has earned her opportunities to get involved with DEI initiatives. 

“One of the most rewarding parts of my job has to do with the impact I am able to make by making connections between my graduate school knowledge and interests, and my company’s priorities. The leadership at M&T appreciates the programs and issues that I learned about in graduate school because companies care now more than ever about the communities they serve and the public and nonprofit  partnerships that they value for supporting those communities. Bringing my diverse background into my current role has given me the well-rounded, challenging and rewarding career at M&T Bank that I continue to enjoy after almost 20 years. I would say that any graduate coming out of the Biden School would be just as well positioned should they decide to pursue the corporate sector.”

Andrea’s marketing career has grown tremendously at M&T and continues to stay interesting and fun  because every day there is a new challenge and opportunity to learn. She supported the Wealth Management business for fourteen years then raised her hand to join the Corporate Trust business, and to also take on the communications for a major bank acquisition that happened in 2022. She is now one year in with supporting the Corporate Trust business, which is an international business that provides a wide range of products and services to support capital markets transactions. She primarily handles marketing for the European market which is poised for significant growth, so building out the marketing strategy for the team is an exciting challenge that she looks forward to taking on. ​

​Andrea lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with her husband and two teenage children. She enjoys trail running, bird watching, gardening, and volunteering with the Delaware Nature Society, Latin American Community Center, and her children’s schools. Her passions have not changed since having been inspired by her undergrad and grad experiences at the University of Delaware.