Husband and wife Red and Sheri Cavaney donate $100,000 to university

The former CEO of the American Petroleum Institute and his wife, also a former association executive, have donated $100,000 to the University of Southern California to create a scholarship for graduate students studying nonprofit leadership.

The Red and Sheri Cavaney Endowed Scholarship for Nonprofit Leadership is first scholarship gift established for USC's new master of nonprofit leadership and management degree, according the university. It will be awarded to a student who displays "exceptional academics, professional accomplishments and future promise in the field of nonprofit leadership."

Red Cavaney is a longtime association executive who spent more than a decade as head of API. He also led the American Plastics Council and American Forest & Paper Association. Sheri Cavaney is the former vice president of practice mobility and state regulation and mobility for the American Institute of CPAs, where she worked for 20 years.

"The nonprofit sector will play an increasingly vital role in our nation and in the global world in the decades ahead," Red Cavaney said in a statement. "Spending the majority of my career in the nonprofit association profession and as the past chairman of the American Society of Association Executives, I am particularly honored to be among the first to help support USC's emphasis in training leaders for the association management profession."

In addition, the Cavaneys have also pledged an additional $50,000 to support the Red and Sheri Cavaney Graduate Scholarship for Veterans Fund at USC Price.http://bit.ly/1H5ygxY