Three assistants to the President in Berea College's development office have been promoted to new positions.

Dr. Bradford Crain has been named director of major gifts, Debra J. Johnson will assume the position of major gifts officer and coordinator of the College's upcoming capital campaign, and Larry Pelfrey has been appointed a major gifts officer. Crain's appointment is effective immediately while Pelfrey and Johnson will begin their new duties July 1.

Crain joined the development staff a year ago as assistant to the president and major gifts officer. An English scholar and veteran higher education administrator, Crain was president of Lees-McRae College from 1985-93 and led the largest fund-raising effort in the school's history. From 1983-85, he was vice president and academic dean and professor of English at Lincoln Memorial University.

In earlier positions at Berea, Crain served as instructor of English from 1968-70 and was assistant to the president for institutional advancement from 1994-95.

A Florida native, Crain graduated from Berea in 1965. He was a member of the College's Alumni Executive Council from 1980-87 and its president in 1987. He also holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He and his wife, Alice, have a son, Michael, who lives near San Francisco and a daughter, Emily, of Boone, N.C.

Johnson has served as director of prospect development and assistant to the President since 1997. In her new position, she will serve half-time as campaign coordinator and half-time as a major gifts officer and assistant to the president.

Prior to joining Berea, Johnson was senior associate for five years with Bentz Whaley Flessner (now Marts and Lundy), a Minneapolis-based international fund-raising management consultant firm. She also has served as director of development services at Hampden-Sydney College and was employed for two years in the development office of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.

Active in the Berea community, Johnson is a board member for the new Boys and Girls Club of Madison County and served two years as a member of the Berea Hospital Auxiliary Committee.

A native of Nelson Country, Va., Johnson is a 1985 graduate of the University of Virginia. A national speaker on fund-raising, her areas of specialty include on-line and internet research.

Pelfrey has been an assistant to the president for the Annual Fund since 1997.A 1985 alumnus of Berea, he joined the College's admissions staff following his graduation, serving as an assistant director until 1996. He also was employed in the insurance industry and was a community recruitment specialist at Kentucky State University. He and his wife Karin have one son, Charles Benjamin, age seven.