Persuasive Development Writing

Faculty

Conference Chair

Maura King Scully
Principal
MKS Communication

Maura King Scully is an industrial-strength marketing communications professional and freelance writer. In 1999, she formed her own consulting business, MKS Communication, specializing in writing, editing and project management for a variety of nonprofit and educational clients.

Her previous professional positions include director of development communications for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, director of communications at the Boston College Alumni Association and assistant director for special events at the Boston College Alumni Association. She began her career in public relations.

Scully is active in professional organizations, including CASE, both at the district and national levels. Over the past decade, she has served on the faculty for CASE's Persuasive Development Writing conference, presented conference sessions at a number of CASE district conferences, chaired workshops, judged publications contests and served on conference committees. In 2009, she received CASE's Crystal Apple award for excellence in teaching.

Outside writing, Scully is co-founder of Mil Milagros Coffee, a kitchen-table company that sells organic, Fair Trade Guatemalan coffee. Proceeds benefit a child nutrition program in the Guatemalan highlands that feeds 1,200 children daily.

She holds a bachelor's degree in communications and a master's degree in administration from Boston College.

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Faculty

Jennifer Bowie
Executive Director of Development
Ohio University

Jennifer Bowie has been an executive director of development at Ohio University since March of 2011. Prior to that she served as the director of development for annual giving and communications. She is responsible for development and campaign-related marketing and communication as well as for the university's annual giving tools (direct mail, phone, email, web and leadership annual giving.)

She began her career in development in 1999 at Ohio University as a major gifts officer. In 2001 she became the director of development communications. In that role, she had primary responsibility for all of the university's fundraising communications, including major gift proposals, case statements and collateral material, gift announcements and other media relations, and special event materials.

Bowie is a two-time Ohio University graduate, having earned her bachelor's degree in journalism from the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism in 1994 and her master's degree in communication in 1999.

While pursuing her master's, she taught a number of courses in the Scripps School, including feature writing and essential college grammar.

Prior to beginning work on her master's in 1997, and embarking on a career in higher education, Bowie worked in healthcare communications for Deaconess Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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Heath Elliott
Senior Director for College Advancement-Principal Gifts
Harvey Mudd College

Overseeing the Annual Giving, Alumni and Parent Relations, Stewardship and Major Gifts programs at Harvey Mudd College (a member of the Claremont Consortium) since 2007, Heath Elliott is directly responsible for managing a team of 15 professionals who raise between $4 million and 6 million a year while conducting 55-60 regional and campus-based events each year.

Previously, Elliott worked at Pomona College for 10 years in several fundraising roles. He began his tenure as an assistant director for the annual fund, overseeing several reunion fundraising committees, as well as establishing Pomona's student calling program. He moved into major gifts in the fall of 1999, where his primary responsibility was to cultivate, steward and solicit alumni and parent prospects.

Prior to his move out West, he worked in Institutional Research and Annual Giving at the University of South Carolina while attending graduate school. He started his career in higher education by working in admissions for his alma mater, Centenary College of Louisiana.

Elliott has a bachelor's degree in history from Centenary, a master's degree in higher education administration from the University of South Carolina and a MBA from the Drucker/Ito School of Management at the Claremont Graduate University. This is his sixth time to serve on the faculty for the Persuasive Development Writing conference.

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David Jones
Senior Director, Annual/Special Giving and Prospect Development
University of Georgia

David Jones has built a 19-year career in higher education and served in advancement roles for the majority of that time. He began his work experience as director of student activities at Gordon College, a small two-year school in Barnesville, Ga. Returning to his alma mater with a deeper understanding of the student experience influence on philanthropic support, he then coordinated the alumni and development programs for the University of Georgia's (UGA) Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources. He transitioned to the university's central advancement office in 1998, overseeing the annual giving programs for the institution. The Georgia Fund presently raises more than $10 million through an integrated phone, mail and online campaign. Jones led Georgia's annual giving programs through several strategic transitions including multiple-ask strategies and a shift from alumni dues to charitable giving.

Jones' latest professional opportunity is in leading both annual and special giving as well as the advancement research/prospect management units at UGA. Bridging the flow between annual giving cycles and the systems for prospect identification and management, he welcomes this new learning opportunity for himself and the organization.

Jones is a "double dog" alumnus of UGA, with an undergraduate degree in public relations from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and a master's degree in organizational development from the College of Education. He often consults on fundraising as well as board development and strategic planning efforts for nonprofit groups. A CASE Crystal Apple recipient for excellence in teaching, he is a frequent presenter and facilitator at professional regional and national conferences including Persuasive Development Writing and the CASE Summer Institute in Educational Fundraising.

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Larry Lafferty
Assistant Vice President for Development
Ohio University

Larry Lafferty has worked in higher education fundraising for 24 years. In his current position as assistant vice president for development, he is charged with managing all fundraising at Ohio University and directing the next comprehensive campaign.

Coming to Ohio in 1989, Lafferty served through two previous campaigns, "The Third Century Campaign," which raised $132 million against its $100 million goal, and "The Bicentennial Campaign," which raised $221 million against its $200 million goal. He currently manages the departments and activities of annual giving, planned giving, corporate/foundation relations, and leadership/major gift fundraising.

Previously, he served as the director of development for annual giving and as the executive director of development for annual giving programs and special campaigns, both at Ohio University.

Prior to joining Ohio's staff, Lafferty served as the director of the annual fund at West Virginia University. He has presented at numerous CASE, CCAE and AFP conferences, and has consulted with a variety of local and regional nonprofit organizations and colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

He earned his bachelor's degree in communication studies.

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Tracy Mills
Associate Director of Marketing and Analysis, Haas School of Business
University of California, Berkeley

Tracy Mills is the associate director of marketing and analysis at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, she served as the associate director of library development at UC Berekely, where she was responsible for soliciting major gifts from individuals, corporations and foundations. The library recruited her in 2003 to coordinate a campaign for the renovation of the Bancroft Library, which raised more than $34 million in three years.

Mills also served as the director of development for global health at the University of California, San Francisco Department of Psychiatry and as the marketing director at the American Himalayan Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people in Nepal, Tibet, India and Bhutan.

Before embarking on a career in development, Mills was a business consultant with Accenture, a leading global management consulting firm. She received her bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and she interned with the Napa Group, a management consulting firm specializing in higher education.

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Tracey Palmer
Principal/Writer/Editor
Palmer Communications

Tracey Palmer is an award-winning marketing and development communications professional with 20 years' experience. She specializes in writing, editing and project management for education clients, healthcare organizations and other nonprofits.
Formerly, she was senior university writer and magazine editor for Suffolk University; director of publications, public relations and advertising for Curry College; and marketing associate for an international academic publisher. Her freelance work appears in the Boston Globe, CURRENTS, and numerous college and university magazines.

A highly rated workshop leader and writing coach, Palmer is passionate about helping others write better. A longtime CASE faculty member and volunteer, she regularly presents at district conferences and workshops, judges publications contests and serves on conference committees. She has been on the Persuasive Development Writing Conference faculty since 2004. Other organizations she's involved with include the James Library and Center for the Arts, the Trustees of Reservations, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, and the DayBoat Collaborative. In 2004, she founded Chicks Who Write, a professional networking group for women who freelance in greater Boston.

Palmer has a bachelor's degree in American literature from The George Washington University and a master's degree in communication (PR and advertising) from Suffolk University, and studied in the U.K. at the University of East Anglia.

 

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Robin Torbron Warde
Director of Alumni Relations
Bryant University

Robin Torbron Warde has been in college and university fundraising for the past 26 years and has been a regular contributing faculty for the Persuasive Development Writing seminar for eight years.

In 2001, Warde joined Bryant University as director of development for institutional programs, overseeing corporate and foundation relations, the annual fund, the alumni database and gift processing. In that position, and as interim executive director of development in 2002-2003, she worked to meet Bryant's campaign goal of $35 million 15 months ahead of schedule. Currently, as Bryant gears up for a new campaign, Warde is serving as director of alumni relations as well as carrying a major gift prospect pool for the development department.

Prior to joining Bryant, Warde served as director of corporate and foundation relations for Brown Medical School. She has also worked at Wheaton College as director of corporate and foundation relations, at Brown University as associate director of corporate and foundation relations and at Columbia University and Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center as associate director of corporate relations.

Warde graduated from Youngstown State University with a degree in applied music and received a master's degree from Columbia University.

Outside of higher education, she is immediate past president of the International Institute of Rhode Island, a nonprofit agency serving the needs of immigrants and refugees throughout southeastern New England. She also sits on the board of the International Charter School, a dual language (Spanish and Portuguese) K-5 school serving students throughout Rhode Island.

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