Institute Chair

Thomas Chaves
Assistant Vice President of Advancement Services
Lehigh University

Thomas Chaves is the assistant vice president of advancement services at Lehigh University where he is building and leading a dynamic information management environment to support Lehigh's advancement operations. Managing a centralized team in a decentralized environment, Chaves strives to effectively and efficiently use technology, process and people to bring valuable information to Lehigh's advancement team.

Before coming to Lehigh, he spent more than 17 years at SunGard/SCT working with more than 100 Banner clients to implement and effectively use Banner Advancement. He also served as the director of annual giving at Albright College and finished a nine-year tenure on Albright College's Alumni Association board, serving as president the last two years.

Chaves chaired the 2010 CASE Conference for Senior Advancement Services Professionals, is a board member of the Association of Advancement Services Professionals and is a member of the Banner Advancement advisory board.

He holds a bachelor's degree from Albright College and a master's degree from Penn State University.

Speaker

Karin George
Senior Associate
Washburn & McGoldrick, Inc.

Karin George joined Washburn & McGoldrick, Inc. in 2005, following a 19-year campus-based career that began immediately after graduating from Smith College in 1986. Her leadership, teaching, and strategic skills have made her a sought-after speaker at professional meetings and a respected colleague at the institutions she has served as a campus officer and a consultant.

Karin was appointed vice president for advancement at her alma mater in 1999. With an advancement team of 68 professionals, she led Smith's $425M campaign effort, This is about Smith. At Smith, Karin was a member of the president's senior staff, the committee on administrative technology, a member of the committee on mission and priorities, an ex-officio member of the Alumnae Association board of directors, and main staff contact for the Campaign Steering Committee and Campaign Honorary Committee.

Karin began her career at St. Lawrence University as assistant director of annual giving in 1986 and was promoted to director of annual giving in 1989. In 1991, she moved on to Vassar College as director of the annual fund and special gifts. In February 1995 she was appointed vice president for development at Vassar and brought its campaign to a successful close with a total of $206 million. As vice president she served on the president's senior staff and was an active member of the Priorities and Planning Committee. She also staffed the Nominations Committee of the Board of Trustees and worked as the main contact for the Pyramid Society of former trustees.

Karin serves a diverse range of clients including specialized schools such as Berklee College of Music, as well as liberal arts colleges including Spelman College, Marietta College, and Franklin Pierce. She also works with comprehensive institutions such as Capital University.

Karin served as a CASE trustee from 2003-2005 and as chair of the Committee on the Profession. She was a member of the faculty of CASE's Summer Institute in Educational Fund Raising from 2000-2004 and served on the faculty of CASE's Advancement Management Institute from 2003-2005. She is a recipient of CASE's distinguished Crystal Apple Award for teaching excellence.

Karin earned her BA in art history at Smith College. She illustrated the mural section of Diego Rivera: A Retrospective, (Founders Society Detroit Institute of Art, in association with W.W. Norton and Company, New York 1986) in collaboration with the late art historian Stanton Catlin. She is currently enrolled in the Graduate Liberal Studies program at Wesleyan University.

Faculty

Caroline S. Chang
Assistant Vice President for Operations and Campaigns
Santa Clara University

As the assistant vice president for operations and campaigns at Santa Clara University, Caroline Chang oversees advancement services—gift processing, records, reporting, research and prospect management, stewardship, budgeting, human resources, facilities for University Relations, and campaign planning and reporting.

Previously, she was the director of operations for Stanford University's office of development, with responsibility for gift processing, biographic records and central files (imaging). Over the course of her career, she also had responsibility for training and reporting, the help desk and campaign operations. She began her career in development as a Stanford phone appeal volunteer, and then became director of student and young alumni development for The Stanford Fund. After five years in The Stanford Fund, which included several changes in responsibilities, she became director of annual giving for the Stanford University Medical Center in February 1995. After two years as annual giving director, she was lured by the call of operations and the challenges of converting to a client server database. She became Stanford's managing director of development operations in April 2003 and director of operations in November 2006.

Chang holds both a bachelor's and master's degree from Stanford University, and a master's degree in business administration from the Santa Clara University.

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.

Margo Knight
Director of Advancement Research, Office of College Advancement
Bates College

Margo Knight has been director of research in the Office of College Advancement at Bates College since 2000. She is responsible for developing and managing the prospect research and prospect management programs for Bates in support of its overall fundraising and alumni relations efforts and preparation for the next campaign.

She started in development research in at the University of Virginia, where she was the first director of research on staff. She moved to Georgetown University in 1982 to direct the research and prospect management operation through two campaigns. In 1990, she left higher education to join the central office of development and membership at the Smithsonian Institution as director of administration and operations.

Knight is an active member of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement, where she served on the board of directors for several years, and received the organization's Distinguished Service Award in 2001. She has presented sessions and workshops on development research and prospect management for CASE, the Association for Prospect Researchers in Advancement, the New England Development Researchers Association and the Association of Fundraising Professionals. In 2006 and 2007, she was the Advancement Track chair for Summit (now Ellucian Live), the annual international conference sponsored by the company that owns Banner, the enterprise-wide database used by Bates.

She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Macalester College.

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, where she guides the prospect research, systems and reporting, data integrity, and gift and record management functions. She serves on the board of the Association of Advancement Services Professionals (AASP), and is an active member of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA), the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

She has more than 20 years of professional experience in advancement services; having worked at both public and private institutions of higher education at the University of Oregon and Vanderbilt University, as well as in development consulting for Bentz Whaley Flessner and JLC Consulting. As a consultant, she specialized in business process redesign, working with clients including the University of Rochester and Georgetown University to streamline business practices in alignment with industry standards.

Liu-Cooper received two bachelor's degrees—one in telecommunications and one in public relations—from the University of Oregon.

Mary Carole Starke
Associate Vice President for Operations and Associate Campaign Director
Vassar College

Mary Carole Starke is associate vice president for operations and associate campaign director at Vassar College. She oversees operations—gift processing, records, prospect research, prospect management, donor relations, information services, technology, imaging, budgeting, campaign planning and campaign staffing. She is a member of the senior management team responsible for strategic planning for the Office of Alumnae/i Affairs and Development.

Starke began working at Vassar in 1993 as director of research and has served in a variety of roles since then. During her tenure she was a member of the Banner implementation team, spearheaded the creation of fundraising data marts to improve reporting, implemented online giving and imaging software, and developed policy and procedure manuals. Prior to working at Vassar, Starke worked as a senior researcher at Ithaca College and as a research assistant at Gallaudet University.

In addition to her position at Vassar, Starke serves as a consulting vice president for advancement services for Grenzebach, Glier, and Associates, a philanthropic management firm in Chicago. She assists clients with best practices in advancement services and operations.

Starke holds a bachelor's degree from Elmira College and a master's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Meredeth Winter
Senior Philanthropy Program Advisor
The Nature Conservancy

Meredeth Winter is a senior philanthropy program advisor at The Nature Conservancy, having celebrated her 15 anniversary with the organization in 2012. Over the years she has held a variety of positions in fundraising, both out-the-door and on the fundraising operations side in annual giving, database support and training, gift and bio records and advancement services management. Throughout her tenure she has focused on organizational design, streamlining processes and systems, team building and fostering collaboration in a geographically distributed organization.

Winter is a board member of the Association of Advancement Services Professionals, currently in her second term and serving as vice president. She holds a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in French and Russian language and literature, and a master's degree from Tufts University in applied child development.

CASE Crystal Apple award winner for excellence in teaching.