Executive Seminar and Concurrent Session Speakers
Executive Seminar Speakers
Francis Flynn
Paul E. Holden Professor of Organizational Behavior
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Francis (Frank) Flynn received his doctorate in organizational behavior from the University of California, Berkeley. From 2000-2006, he served as an assistant and then as an associate professor at Columbia Business School, joining the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) in September 2006. A winner of multiple teaching awards, Flynn's courses focus on leadership issues, particularly how young managers can learn to navigate complex political environments and build interpersonal influence.
Flynn's research investigates issues of employee cooperation, diversity in work groups and leadership in organizations. His recent work considers how employees can develop healthy patterns of cooperation and whether the influence of gender stereotypes on workplace dynamics can be mitigated. His scholarly articles appear in more than a dozen publications that span the fields of management and social psychology. He currently sits on the editorial boards of Administrative Science Quarterly and Academy of Management Journal.
He has worked for the Department of Commerce in the International Trade Administration, the Institute for Business and Economic Development and the Institute for Urban and Regional Development. He has provided executive education for various companies, including Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Standard & Poor's, Genentech and Merrill Lynch; training that focuses on improving employee decision making and interpersonal leadership skills.
Flynn is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.
Don Moore
Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow, Haas School of Business
University of California, Berkeley
Don Moore is the Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow in Management of Organizations at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.
Prior to Haas, he served on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, where he held the Carnegie Bosch Chair and served as founding director of the Center for Behavioral Decision Research.
Moore received his doctorate in organization behavior from Northwestern University. He is the author or co-author of many book chapters, the author or editor of three books, and he teaches popular classes on managing organizations, negotiation and decision making. He is only occasionally overconfident.
Margaret Neale
Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford University
Margaret Neale is the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. She was the Stanford Graduate School of Business John G. McCoy-Banc One Corporation Professor of Organizations and Dispute Resolution from 2000-2012 and a Trust Faculty Fellow in 2011-2012 and in 2000-2001. From 1997-2000, she was the academic associate dean of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Prior to joining Stanford's faculty in 1995, she was the J.L. and Helen Kellogg Distinguished Professor of Dispute Resolution and Organizations at the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Neale's major research interests include bargaining and negotiation, distributed work groups, and team composition, learning and performance. She is the author of more than 70 articles on these topics and is a coauthor of three books, Organizational Behavior: A Management Challenge (third edition) (with L. Stroh and G. Northcraft) (Erlbaum Press, 2002); Cognition and Rationality in Negotiation (with M.H. Bazerman) (Free Press, 1991); Negotiating Rationally (with M.H. Bazerman) (Free Press, 1992); and one research series Research on Managing in Groups and Teams (with Elizabeth Mannix) (Emerald Press). She is or has served on the editorial boards of the Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, International Journal of Conflict Management, and Human Resource Management Review.
In addition to her teaching and research activities, Neale has conducted executive seminars and management development programs in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Holland, Switzerland, Brazil, Thailand, France, Canada, Nicaragua, the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Israel and Jamaica for public agencies, city governments, health care and trade associations, universities, small businesses and Fortune 500 corporations in the area of negotiation skills, managerial decision making, managing teams and workforce diversity. She is the faculty director of three executive programs at Stanford University: Influence and Negotiation Strategies, Managing Teams for Innovation and Success, and the Executive Program for Women Leaders.
She received her bachelor's degree in pharmacy from Northeast Louisiana University, two master's degrees from the Medical College of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University and her doctorate in business administration from the University of Texas. She began her academic career as a member of the faculty at the Eller School of Management of the University of Arizona.
Hayagreeva Rao
Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford University
Hayagreeva Rao is the Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources at Stanford Graduate School of Business. His research has been published in journals such as the Administrative Science Quarterly, American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Academy of Management Journal, and the Organization Science and Strategic Management Journal. He is also the author of Market Rebels: How Activists Make or Break Radical Innovation (Princeton University Press. 2009.)
He served as the editor of Administrative Science Quarterly, and has been a member of the editorial boards of American Journal of Sociology and Organization Science and Academy of Management Review. He has been a member of the Organizational Innovation and Change Panel of the National Science Foundation.
He is a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science, a Fellow of the Sociological Research Association and also a Fellow of the Academy of Management.
Rao's teaching specialties include leading organizational change, building customer focused cultures and organization design. He has consulted with, and conducted executive workshops for, organizations such as Aon Corporation, British Petroleum, CEMEX, General Electric, Hearst Corporation, IBM, Mass Mutual, James Hardie Company and Seyfarth and Shaw. Additionally, he worked with nonprofit organizations such as the American Cancer Society and government organizations such as the FBI and CIA, and the intelligence community.
Among the awards he has received are the Sidney Levy Teaching Award from the Kellogg School of Management, and the W. Richard Scott Distinguished Award for Scholarship from the American Sociological Association.
Concurrent Session Speakers
Richard Banks
Associate Vice President, Alumni Affairs and Development Administration
Cornell University
Richard Banks is the associate vice president, alumni affairs and development administration for Cornell University, responsible for directing and executing administrative operations supporting the university's fundraising and alumni engagement programs. This includes serving as the senior finance officer and senior administrative officer for the division, and he is responsible for managing the human resources, advancement services, budget, planning and finance programs.
He previously served as director of alumni affairs and development services and as the deputy director of university development at Cornell and also as the director of business operations for Cornell's division of public affairs. Prior to joining alumni affairs and development he worked for eleven years in the Cornell University Controller's Office, including serving as university bursar.
Banks' volunteer service includes serving a member of the Cornell Class of 1972 Class Council and, since January 2012, as a board member for the Community Foundation of Tompkins County.
Jenny Cooke
donorCentrics Account Manager
Target Analytics, a Blackbaud Company
Jenny Cooke manages the donorCentrics benchmarking program for Higher Education for Target Analytics, a Blackbaud Company. In her role she oversees the reports, meetings and collaborative peer groups for all colleges and universities who participate in donorCentrics, a collaborative benchmarking service.
She has worked over the past decade in the fundraising industry, as both a consultant and development officer. As a fundraising consultant for Target Analytics, she delivered and helped implement results for custom predictive statistical models for major, planned and annual giving as well as worked with prospect research teams to best utilize and interpret the results of wealth screenings. She has worked as a fundraising specialist for Blackbaud, coaching nonprofit board and staff members in implementing strategies to increase annual funding.
Before joining Blackbaud, she spent four years at Hospice of Charleston, where she helped the organization through a capital campaign, developed a donor stewardship program and implemented a committee to rewrite the mission and vision of the organization. She has also worked in media relations for Spartanburg Regional Medical Center and the Humane Society of the United States.
Cooke holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communications from the University of South Carolina.
Jon Derek Croteau
Vice President
Witt/Kieffer
Jon Derek Croteau's experience in higher education and not-for-profit organizations encompasses human capital assessment, leadership and management. Based in Rochester, N.Y., he is a vice president and partner with Witt/Kieffer's education, academic medicine and not-for-profit practices. He has conducted numerous executive searches and human capital assessments for universities, colleges, healthcare organizations, foundations and other not-for-profit groups.
Prior to joining Witt/Kieffer, Croteau served as assistant vice president for campaign planning and operations and assistant vice president for advancement services/director of organizational development and human capital management for Carnegie Mellon University. He publishes and presents regularly on talent management topics.
He is the author of The People First Approach, A Guide for Recruiting, Developing and Retaining the Right People; Making the Case for Leadership: Profiles of Chief Advancement Officers in Higher Education; and Effective Measures: The Return on Investing in Talent Management. He is on the Editorial Board for the International Journal of Educational Advancement, and is adjunct professor at the Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester. He has served on the Emerson College Alumni Association Executive Board of Directors, the Board of Ambassadors for the Home for Little Wanderers and was a mentor for Point Foundation.
Croteau graduated summa cum laude from Emerson College with a bachelor's degree in writing, literature and publishing. He earned a master's degree in counseling psychology from Northwestern University, a doctorate in administration, training and policy studies from Boston University and a Certificate in Language and Culture from the Universidad de Grenada in Spain.
Dane Cruz
Director, Cornell Interactive Theater Ensemble
Cornell University
As the director of the Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble (CITE), Dane Cruz is responsible for research, development and implementation of new training programs. He designs and delivers programming for academic institutions, corporations, nonprofit organizations, professional groups, conferences, government agencies and hospitals nationwide. He works as a training specialist with CITE using interactive theatre to address challenging workplace issues.
Over the past 15 years, the CITE team has reached thousands of people. Some clients include: Columbia University, Dartmouth College, ExxonMobil, ConAgra and the University of California, Berkeley. Cruz serves as producer and theatrical director for all CITE programming including interactive pieces and DVDs. As the primary liaison for external and internal clients, he provides oversight for the ensemble's business relations as well as supervision and training of regular and adjunct staff.
As an actor, he has worked in regional theatre, radio, film and industrial and corporate training via video, film and CD-Rom. He received his training at Florida State University in its BFA Program, and interned as an actor at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J.
Michael C. Eicher
Senior Vice President for Advancement
The Ohio State University
Michael C. Eicher, an accomplished leader in higher education development and external affairs, began as senior vice president for advancement at The Ohio State University and president of The Ohio State University Foundation in November 2012.
As senior vice president for advancement, Eicher is responsible for the implementation of a university-wide advancement model, integrating the functions of alumni relations, communications and marketing, and fundraising to best serve Ohio State's vision of one university. Together with the staff of The Ohio State University Alumni Association, university communications and the foundation, he will work to foster positive relationships with students, alumni and other key audiences; provide multiple opportunities for engagement; and generate involvement and support for the mission of The Ohio State University.
Eicher is also leading the charge to raise $2.5 billion in the university's "But for Ohio State" campaign as president of The Ohio State University Foundation. Under his direction, the colleges and units of Ohio State will focus on raising funds to support five priorities: placing students first; elevating faculty and the academic enterprise; creating modern learning environments; emboldening the research agenda; and driving high-impact innovation.
Prior to joining Ohio State, he was senior vice president for external affairs and development at Johns Hopkins University. While there, Eicher led the "Johns Hopkins: Knowledge for the World" campaign. That effort, which closed at the end of 2008 with commitments of more than $3.7 billion, focused on the critical unmet needs of the university and Johns Hopkins Medicine, including student aid and faculty support, construction of clinical buildings at the medical campus, and important renovation projects.
He served as vice chancellor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Starting with UCLA in 1986, he rose from associate director of development in the School of Medicine to deputy director and director, and from there to vice provost for medical science development, and assistant and associate vice chancellor. "Campaign UCLA," a 10-year effort completed in 2005, ultimately raised $3.05 billion, then a record for U.S. universities according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Eicher graduated from the University of California, San Diego.
Ryan Fisher
Director of Web Marketing
Furman University
Ryan Fisher is a digital marketing strategist with more than a decade of experience in higher education. He is passionate about technology's ability to transform culture through the democratization of information curation and publication.
As director of web marketing at Furman University, Fisher is focused on ways to improve the university's online presence through the implementation of innovative social, mobile and video-based initiatives.
Fisher began his career as the webmaster for BI-LO, LLC, a Southeastern grocery retailer. In 2001 he transitioned into higher education as Furman's director of web development, and in 2007 he successfully refocused his position on web strategy and became the director of web marketing where he now leads the university's web communication team.
He earned his bachelor's degree in marketing from Clemson University.
Tom Faulders
President and CEO
University of Virgnia Alumni Association
Tom Faulders is the president and CEO of the University of Virginia Alumni Association, a 200,000 strong member organization located in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is responsible to a Board of Managers composed of 36 prominent alumni and with 65 employees manages alumni engagement for the university.
Prior to this advancement position, Faulders served in leadership roles in the high-tech and telecom business sectors. He was the chairman and chief executive officer of LCC International, a public wireless engineering company, from June 1999 through April 2005. He directed the financial turnaround and subsequent growth of the company.
Prior to joining LCC, Faulders served as executive vice president and chief financial officer, as well as president of the Integrated Supply Chain division of BDM International, Inc. from March 1995 through March 1998. From March 1992 through March of 1995, he was the chief financial officer of COMSAT Corporation. Prior to COMSAT, he served in a variety of areas for MC, including senior vice president of business marketing, vice president of large account sales and treasurer. Prior to his six years with MCI, he served in key positions with Satellite Business Systems. He also served eight years in the U.S. Navy.
Faulders holds a master's degree in business adminisration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor's degree ineconomics from the University of Virginia.
Andrew Gossen
Senior Director for Social Media Strategy, Alumni Affairs and Development
Cornell University
Find Andrew online:
Twitter: @agossen
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewgossen
Website: http://alumni.cornell.edu
Andrew Gossen is the senior director for social media strategy in Cornell University's Division of Alumni Affairs and Development. He joined Cornell in early 2010 to spearhead the integration of social media and mobile technology into the division's strategic plan.
Previously, Gossen spent eight years at the Alumni Association of Princeton University in a number of diverse roles. He sits on the CASE Commission on Alumni Relations, co-chairs the CASE Task Force on Social Media, and serves on the Advisory Group of Alumni Futures.
He holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a doctorate in social anthropology from Harvard University.
Steve Grafton
President and CEO, Alumni Association
University of Michigan
Steve Grafton is President and CEO of the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan. He came to Michigan in 1994, from Mississippi State University where he was executive director of the alumni association. Before that he worked for U.S. Senator John Stennis (deceased). Grafton is a former member of CASE's board of trustees and chaired the Commission on Alumni Relations. He has also been a district director, faculty member for numerous CASE conferences, and editor of the alumni section in the Handbook of Institutional Advancement. He is the current president of the Council of Alumni Association Executives (CAAE).
Kevin S. Groves
Associate Professor of Management
Pepperdine University
Kevin S. Groves is an associate professor of management at Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management, and principal of Talent Management Consulting, a consultancy that helps organizations develop talent through leadership assessment, development and succession planning systems.
Groves' ongoing consulting work helps organizations design customized solutions for enhancing leadership bench strength, creating viable succession plans, reducing high potential turnover and maximizing employee engagement. Groves teaches a range of courses at the Graziadio School, including leadership competency development, organization design and organization development and change.
An active leadership scholar, Groves is a recipient of the Julian Virtue Professorship at the Graziadio School, which supports his research on transformational leadership, leader values and leader-follower values congruence, leader emotional and cultural intelligences, organizational change, and corporate social responsibility. He is widely published in business management journals, including the Journal of Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Leadership and Organization Studies, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Leadership and Organization Development Journal, Human Resource Development Quarterly, and Journal of Management Development.
Shaun Keister
Vice Chancellor of Development and Alumni Relations, University of California, Davis
Consultant, Campbell & Company
Shaun Keister has more than 19 years of development experience and has worked with a broad spectrum of educational, arts and conservation organizations. During his career, he has been successful in designing, planning and executing successful annual fund programs, particularly via telemarketing, direct mail, e-philanthropy and personal solicitation.
Keister currently serves as the vice chancellor of development and alumni relations for the University of California, Davis where he serves as the institution's chief development officer and provides leadership to their current $1 billion campaign. Prior to UC Davis, he served as associate vice president for development at Penn State University and as vice president for development outreach at the Iowa State University Foundation. During his 13 year tenure at the ISU Foundation, he increased annual giving productivity by more than 80 percent. Through his daily, hands-on experience with the foundation's sophisticated annual fund program, Keister kept abreast of the current trends and new techniques in the constantly changing annual giving field. He also has extensive campaign experience, being involved with the launch of three major campaigns in the amounts of $2 billion, $800 million and $458 million respectively.
Active in the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), he has made more than 50 national presentations to large audiences. He earned his bachelor's degree with honors and distinction from Penn State University and both his master's degree and doctorate from Iowa State University.
Mark Kelly
Vice President for Marketing and Public Relations
Furman University
Mark Kelly joined Furman University as vice president for marketing and public relations in 2010 and brings more than 25 years of experience in higher education market research, strategic planning and integrated communications management to his position. He believes storytelling, coupled with excellence in design and technological innovation, is the most compelling form of brand differentiation.
While maintaining a disciplined focus on revenue-enhancing goals in enrollment and philanthropy, he has in recent years led the transition from print and other legacy communications channels to exciting new ventures in digital marketing and communications. Critical initiatives include comprehensive and mission-driven content strategies for website development, and web-enabled applications for mobile delivery of content and other marketing material. He previously served at Sewanee: The University of the South, at Loyola University Maryland, and at the University of South Carolina-Aiken. He began his career as a newspaper reporter.
Kelly earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Virginia and a master's degree in communications management from Syracuse University.
Matthew Lambert
Vice President for Development
The College of William & Mary
Matthew Lambert is the vice president for development at the College of William & Mary where he began in April 2013 after 11 years at Georgetown University. He oversees the university's development team of 80+ staff including major and principal gifts, campaign operations, annual giving, development communications and advancement services. He leads a team that strives to grow and strengthen William & Mary's philanthropic community by identifying and qualifying new prospective donors, volunteers and connectors; developing individualized pipelines for each school and program at the university, and providing the meaningful giving and engagement opportunities to carry alumni and parents from a disengaged status to consistent annual, major, principal and planned gift supporters of the university. This work is undertaken with a donor-centric approach.
Prior to arriving at William & Mary, Lambert was the associate vice president for university development at Georgetown University. During his 11 years at Georgetown, he worked in a variety of roles incorporating major gift and annual fund together with volunteer engagement. He created the Student Discovery Initiative and was involved with every step of the program's evolution, which is now recognized nationally as a model for alumni engagement.
Before coming to Georgetown, Lambert worked for a Fortune 100 company in a unique role incorporating public relations, promotions and marketing and in development and alumni relations at the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.
Lambert received his bachelor's degree in psychology and sociology from the College of William & Mary, his master's degree in higher education administration from The Ohio State University and his doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania. He is active in research and scholarship and is currently writing a book about privatization in higher education.
Scott Mory
Associate Senior Vice President and Campaign Director
University of Southern California
Scott Mory is the University of Southern California's (USC) associate senior vice president and campaign director. His primary responsibilities are to manage the day-to-day activities of the "Campaign for USC," including tracking campaign progress, developing campaign communications and events, and engaging campaign volunteers. In addition to his campaign responsibilities, he oversees USC's alumni relations programs.
Mory joined USC in August 2007, and until January 2013 served as associate senior vice president for alumni relations. He was responsible for advancing the mission of the university by engaging a community of more than 325,000 alumni through programs, services and communications, and working closely with the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors. Prior to joining USC, Mory had a similar role at the George Washington University.
He is a frequent presenter at CASE conferences and was a member of CASE's Commission on Alumni Relations. He also served on the executive committee of the Association of Private College and University Alumni Directors and is a member of the Council of Alumni Association Executives.
Mory holds a bachelor's degree from the George Washington University and a juris doctorate from the George Washington University Law School. Prior to joining the advancement profession, he served as a federal judicial law clerk, and was an associate of Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP.
Mark Nemec
President & CEO
Eduventures
President and chief executive officer Mark Nemec joined Eduventures in 2011, bringing extensive leadership experience and research and advisory expertise, along with a passion for higher education. He is responsible for creating value for clients and shareholders through the strategic guidance and growth of the company.
Nemec joined Eduventures from Forrester Research's executive team where he served as a managing director. Previously, he was a senior director at the Advisory Board Company and served on the faculty in political science at Davidson College, where his work focused on how organizations and their leadership manage innovation and navigate constraints. His book, Ivory Towers and Nationalist Minds (University of Michigan Press, 2006), assessed the impact of American universities on the establishment of the American state.
He received his doctorate in political science (American politics) and his master's degree in higher education from the University of Michigan, where he was awarded a Regents Fellowship and a Rackham Dissertation Fellowship. He earned his bachelor's degree, cum laude, at Yale University, where he was also an All-Ivy League rugby player.
Chris Pritcher
Vice President, Advancement Services
Royall & Company
Chris Pritcher is the vice president of advancement services for Royall & Company. He is responsible for partnering with their advancement clients to build short- and long-term strategies that achieve the exceptional return on investment institutions have come to expect from a partnership with Royall & Company.
Before joining Royall in 2005, he held several direct marketing analytic positions in the financial services industry.
Pritcher holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia and is currently pursuing a master's degree in business administration from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.
Ronda Russell
Director of Admissions
Montana State University
Ronda Russell is the director of admissions at Montana State University (MSU). She and the rest of the admissions team develop and manage a recruitment program that reaches more than 100,000 prospective MSU students from around the world annually.
Russell received her undergraduate degree from Concordia College and a master's degree from Montana State University.
Andrew Shaindlin
Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations and Annual Giving
Carnegie Mellon University
Andy Shaindlin is the associate vice president for alumni relations and annual giving at Carnegie Mellon University. A 24-year veteran of higher education administration, he has also worked at Brown University (his alma mater), the University of Michigan, and the California Institute of Technology.
He is the founder of Alumni Futures, a website devoted to exploring opportunities at the intersection of technology and educational fundraising. He has served as a trustee of the Council for and Support of Education (CASE), and chaired the CASE Commission on Alumni Relations. He has also taught, consulted and published on four continents.
Shaindlin earned a master's degree in education from Claremont Graduate University, and can be found on Twitter as @alumnifutures.
Photo Credit Glenn Brookes
Martin Shell
Vice President for Development
Stanford University
Martin Shell is vice president for development at Stanford University, reporting directly to its president. He is responsible for all of the university's development activities, working closely with the president, the provost and the school deans to set the development agenda, deploy resources, establish goals and oversee the fundraising operations across the university.
Before becoming vice president in April 2005, Shell served for two years as associate vice president for development. He was responsible for major portions of the university development program, working closely with a number of the school and unit development offices.
On December 31, 2011, Stanford University completed its capital campaign, "The Stanford Challenge," successfully securing $6.2 billion in commitments against the original goal of $4.3 billion. This makes it the most successful campaign effort in the history of U.S. higher education.
Shell joined Stanford in 1998 to become senior associate dean for external relations and chief operating officer at Stanford Law School. He joined the Law School as it entered the final phase of its capital campaign. That campaign concluded in December 1999, raising $115 million against an original goal of $50 million. Prior to his move to Stanford, he was associate dean for development and alumni relations at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. During his tenure at Penn, the law school set several records for gift commitments and secured the largest outright gift to an American law school at the time. He was actively involved in the three-year process at Stanford that eclipsed the Penn record when the university and law school secured a $43.5 million gift commitment in August 2004. That gift became the largest outright commitment made to legal education.
He is a member of the Development Committee of the American Bar Association's Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar and served as the committee co-chair from 2001-2003. In 2003 he co-chaired the Section's Jackson Hole Conference for Law School Deans and Development Officers. He currently serves as a trustee and member of the Development Committee for the Castilleja School in Palo Alto, Calif.
Shell has been a development officer for more than 20 years serving institutions of higher education in Arkansas, Pennsylvania and California. In addition to development work, he has also served as an executive with a public utility company, press secretary to a U.S. representative and as a newspaper reporter.
Harvey Simmons
Marketing Dean
EverTrue
Harvey Simmons is an entrepreneurial spirit with a philosophical mind. Since his days as a SuperFan at Boston College, Simmons has worked with start-up companies such as BranchOut, HubSpot, and today, EverTrue to bring his enthusiasm for the concepts of inbound marketing into practice.
At EverTrue, he has hosted a series of webinars on the topics of mobile and social, and authors EverTrue's popular blog on the topic of where advancement and technology meets. He is a proud millennial, a runner and an early adopter of all things tech.
Zachary A. Smith
Interim Associate Vice Chancellor, Development
University of California, Riverside
Zachary A. Smith currently serves as the interim associate vice chancellor of development for the University of California, Riverside. Previously, he served as the senior director of strategic talent management and initiatives for university advancement, and director of development for the School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine. He was responsible for building UC Irvine's internal executive recruitment program, as well as strengthening its training and retention initiatives.
Before coming to the University of California, Smith worked at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in a variety of advancement capacities while completing his doctorate in educational leadership with an emphasis in higher education administration. Smith has authored numerous publications on leadership and talent management, including Making the Case for Leadership: Profiles of Chief Advancement Officers in Higher Education. He has also published in the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, the International Journal of Educational Advancement, and wrote a feature article for CURRENTS magazine titled, "Branching Out: Recruiting the right people to educational fundraising makes all the difference." He has presented on leadership and talent management at national conferences and seminars, and his work has been highlighted in the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Loren Taylor
President and CEO
University of Illinois Alumni Association
Loren Taylor is the president and chief executive officer of the University of Illinois Alumni Association, which was founded in 1873 and includes more than 700,000 alumni from the three University of Illinois campuses throughout the state. He has worked in the alumni relations profession for more than 25 years at such institutions as the University of South Florida, the University of Maryland and the University of Kansas before joining the University of Illinois Alumni Association in 1998 as its top executive.
His strategic philosophy is to strike a balance between tradition and innovation to build affinity and community among graduates. The UI Alumni Association is a national leader in its comprehensive programs and services, such as legislative advocacy, career assistance, mass communications, group travel, awards and recognition, and alumni group coordination and networking.
Taylor is a past president of the national Council of Alumni Association Executives. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism and a master's degree in organizational communication from the University of Kansas.
Laura Toy
Principal Gifts Officer
Cornell University
Laura Toy has more than 25 years' experience in advancement, including 20 years at Cornell University. Her expertise is in the areas of individual giving, campaign management and board/volunteer engagement.
Toy currently serves as a principal gifts officer, focusing on a small group of families and individuals with capacity to give $10 million or more to the university. She served as associate vice president for four years, with primary responsibility for Cornell's $4 billion campaign, and for 18 months as interim vice president.
She served as campaign director during the planning stages of Cornell's current comprehensive campaign, laying out the early road map and strategic plan for the effort. Prior to that, she served as Cornell's director of college, unit and project development, responsible for alumni affairs and development initiatives in the university's colleges, unit and professional schools, as well as for priority project fundraising. She led several special project campaigns, including an $18.2 million campaign to renovate and expand one of Cornell's oldest buildings for the department of music, a $200 million "Scholarship Challenge Campaign," and a $100 million campaign for athletics.
Toy's Cornell tenure began in the Department of Athletics, where she led alumni affairs and development efforts before assuming the role of associate athletic director of external affairs, with additional responsibilities for sports information, marketing and sports camps.
She spent seven years at the University of Missouri-Columbia and taught for four years in the Montpelier, Vt., public school system. She earned her undergraduate degree in education from the State University of New York at Cortland, and holds a master's degree in sport administration from Penn State. Toy is a member of the CASE Commission on Philanthropy.
Tom Tillar
Vice President, Alumni Relations
Virginia Tech
Tom Tillar serves as vice president for alumni relations at Virginia Tech, a post he has held since 1995. His previous roles at the university have included director of alumni relations, director of annual giving, director of corporate and foundation support, and director of Greek life.
He holds bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees from Virginia Tech and also a CFRE certification. He has long been active in CASE and CAAE. He has served on about a dozen nonprofit organization boards and has consulted in alumni directory publishing, constituency software development and fundraising.
Roger Williams
Executive Director, Penn State Alumni Association
Pennsylvania State University
Roger Williams is executive director of the Penn State Alumni Association and associate vice president of alumni relations. With 169,209 members, his organization is the largest dues-paying alumni association in the world, having grown by more than 22,000 members over the last nine years.
At the Alumni Association, Williams's strategic priorities have been: membership growth; better support of alumni relations at Penn State campuses beyond University Park; increased support of alumni programs and affiliate groups; stronger support of Alumni Association staff; more attention to young alumni and students (alumni-in-training); legislative education and advocacy; increased diversity; a stronger presence in key metropolitan areas; enhanced revenue generation; a strengthened relationship with Intercollegiate Athletics; and increased support of philanthropy for Penn State and to the Alumni Association
Previously he served as associate vice chancellor for university relations at the University of Arkansas, where he was responsible for the public relations, communications and marketing functions of that institution. In 2001 his operation won the CASE Circle of Excellence Silver Medal for Overall Institutional Relations,as well as the Bronze Medal for Excellence in Science and Research News Writing in both 2001 and 2002.
Williams has 25 years of experience in higher education public relations. Prior to Arkansas, he served as executive director of consulting services for Dick Jones Communications; as associate vice president for communications at Georgetown University and as assistant vice president for university relations at Penn State, where his operation won the CASE Circle of Excellence Grand Gold in Overall Institutional Relations in both 1991 and 1992.
He also is an affiliate associate professor of higher education at Penn State. He is author of 30 published articles and chapters and one book, The Origins of Federal Support for Higher Education: George W. Atherton and the Land-Grant College Movement (1991, University Park: Penn State Press). He served as editor of the communications section in the CASE Handbook of Institutional Advancement (2000). He serves on the editorial board of the scholarly journal Perspectives on the History of Higher Education. Most recently, he was one of four editors of The Future of the American Public Research University (2007, Rotterdam: SensePublishers.
He holds a bachelor's degree in history, a master's degree in journalism and doctorate in higher education, all from Penn State.
Rob Zinkan
Vice Chancellor for External Affairs
Indiana University East
Rob Zinkan is vice chancellor for external affairs at Indiana University East, where he leads an advancement team focused on furthering the mission of the university and enhancing its reputation, relationships and resources. During the past five years, enrollment has increased by 85 percent at Indiana University East, and its Office of External Affairs has been recognized with more than 40 regional and national awards for excellence and innovation in university advancement. Zinkan has been with Indiana University for 10 years, working previously at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus as assistant dean for advancement.
He holds a bachelor's degree from Wabash College and a master's degree in education from Xavier University. He is a doctoral student at Creighton University. He authors the University Advancement blog at UniversityAdvancement.net and serves on the board of directors of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)-Indiana Chapter and CASE Indiana. He has presented at several CASE conferences, the AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education, Noel-Levitz National Conference on Student Recruitment, Marketing and Retention, AFP's Indiana Fundraising Day, TEDxRichmond and eduWeb.
Recipient of the CASE Crystal Apple Award for teaching excellence.
