Institute for Senior Advancement Services Professionals

Discussion Leaders

Conference Chair

Vicky Medlock
Associate Vice President for Advancement
Shenandoah University

Vicky Medlock started in advancement as a phonathon caller in 1981. Since then, she has enjoyed rich and diverse program opportunities at the University of Florida, University of Cincinnati, University of South Florida, the National Rifle Association and Shenandoah University where she is the associate vice president for advancement.

Her experience encompasses nearly every facet of advancement, including gift processing, reporting, records, annual giving, donor relations, events, research, alumni affairs, campaign programming, communications, human resources, finance and operations, training, strategic planning and board relations. She is passionate about the role of advancement services providing leadership to the profession and is an enthusiastic advocate for the inclusiveness of advancement services professionals in the decision-making process.

Medlock has been a strong advocate for advancement services for more than 20 years. She received the CASE Crystal Apple in 2003 and currently serves as the vice president for the Association of Advancement Services Professionals.

 

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Discussion Leaders

Wayne Combs
Associate Dean, Advancement Operations and Constituent Programs
USC Dornsife Office of Advancement University of Southern California

Wayne Combs is the associate dean of advancement operations and constituent programs for USC's Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences. Most recently, he served as the director of advancement services and information management at Occidental College. Prior to Oxy, Combs served as the manager of gift, data and record services at UC, San Diego.

As campaign operations manager, he oversaw a three-year strategic plan for advancement services in support of the University of Washington's $2.5 billion campaign. Combs began his career in higher education at UCLA training advancement staff in the use of software and fundraising technology to prepare for a $3 billion campaign.

He received his bachelor's degree in economics and public policy from Pomona College. He received his MBA in innovation and a master's degree in management in technology from the University of Washington. He is actively involved in the Association of Advancement Services Professionals and CASE.

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Susan Vandermast
Assistant Vice President for Advancement Operations
University of South Florida Foundation

Susan Vandermast is the assistant vice president for advancement operations at the University of South Florida Foundation where she manages a team of programmers, data entry staff, desktop support, education and training, and prospect researchers fondly referred to as the Input/Output team.

Vandermast worked in Central Information Technology at Vassar College for 14 years before joining the advancement services team at USF in 1996 to manage a data conversion for development, alumni relations and two foundations from a legacy system to Sungard's BANNER advancement database. While advancement services has adjusted and realigned during the years to support the ever-changing models of centralized, decentralized, hybrid, regional and global fundraising, the one constant for advancement services is rising expectations and limited resources. Using her computer science background, she leverages technology to supplement the resources that help transform the organization's vision into reality.

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Shomari White
Interim Executive Director of Operations, Children's Hospital Foundation
Children's National Medical Center

Shomari White is the interim executive director of operations for Children's Hospital Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he manages human resources, gift processing, data services, financial reporting, quality assurance and compliance, and is responsible for overall management and oversight of the foundation budget.

Prior to his arrival to Children's, White spent seven years at Verizon where he served in several senior management roles in finance and data reconciliation and won numerous management awards for leading the top sales and service call centers in the Potomac region.

At Children's Hospital Foundation, White has not only built the infrastructure to support the organization's successful "Transforming Children's Health Campaign," he has also served as acting director of donor development responsible for the management of direct mail, special events and corporate fundraising.

White has a bachelor's degree in business management from Howard University and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Maryland University College, Graduate School of Management and Technology.

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Guest Speakers

Gail A. Ferris
Director, Technology and Information Services, Office of Development and Alumni Relations
American University

In January of this year, Gail Ferris assumed the duties of director of technology and information services at American University. As the advancement information manager for the university, he oversees biographic records maintenance, gift processing, fundraising reporting, and the implementation of the university's Colleague Advancement information management system.

From 2008 through 2011, Ferris served as director of development services at the Catholic University of America. As director, he supervised the university's alumni records, gift processing, and prospect research and management, as well as the university's Millennium development information management system.

In 2006 and 2007, Ferris was director of development systems at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. There he had responsibility for maintaining the database tracking the museum's 200,000 members and the processing of all gifts to the museum. In February, 2007, he assumed responsibility for budget for the Development division, as well as interaction with the museum's information technology, operations, legal and human resources areas.

Previously, Ferris served as director of development operations at the World Wildlife Fund- U.S., where he was responsible for biographic and gift records, including prospect research and management, budget and human resources. He also served as executive director for advancement records at The George Washington University; as a consultant-in-residence at GW for Systems and Computer Technology Corporation; as director of information management in Georgetown University's office of alumni and university relations; and as director of alumni records at Yale University.

Active in CASE, he has served as faculty member and chair for several CASE conferences and as chair of the Matching Gifts Advisory Council. He is the recipient of the CASE Crystal Apple Award for teaching excellence.

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Jennifer Liu-Cooper
Senior Director of Development & Alumni Relations Services
University of Delaware

Jennifer Liu-Cooper is the senior director of development and alumni relations services at the University of Delaware. She has more than 20 years of professional experience in advancement services, having worked at both public and private institutions of higher education (University of Oregon and Vanderbilt University) as well as in development consulting (Bentz Whaley Flessner, JLC Consulting).

As a consultant, she specialized in business process redesign, working with clients such as the University of Rochester and Georgetown University to streamline business practices in alignment with industry standards. She currently oversees the gift processing, records, prospect research, systems and reporting, and data integrity functions for the University of Delaware.

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Keynote Speaker

Kevin MacDonell
Author
CoolData Blog

Since May 2010, Kevin MacDonnell has been an annual giving officer in the external relations department at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he runs a phonathon program and conducts fundraising data analysis. Prior to that, he was a prospect researcher for major gifts at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, for five years.

He is the author of the blog CoolData: http://cooldata.wordpress.com and for several years has been promoting the use of data mining and predictive modeling in fundraising both in his workplace and via conferences and workshops.

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CASE Crystal Apple award winner for excellence in teaching.