Sharon Beales, who has more than 20 years of experience in fundraising leadership, joined Northampton Community College in 2014 as Vice President of Institutional Advancement. A few of her many accomplishments at Northampton Community College include growing the endowment from $40 to $65 million, growing programming and private foundation revenue, and conducting the college’s first Giving Day in fall of 2019 and exceeding their goal of $50,000 to raise $76,348 from 623 donors.

Mills, who has more than 29 years in educational advancement, was appointed to the University of Maine Foundation in 2012 as the President and CEO after serving previously as the Vice President of University Advancement and President and CEO of the University of Maine Alumni Association from 2002 to2005. Highlights of his accomplishments at the University of Maine Foundation include the launch of a comprehensive giving campaign with a $200 million goal, ending the campaign with over $208 million raised. The campaign also increased fundraising to an all-time high average of $36 million and secured the largest capital campaign gift in university history. Additionally, Mills launched the faculty, staff and administration giving campaign, which raised more than $1.2 million this past year.

Dr. Vita Pickrum joined Delaware State University in 2008 and serves multiple roles including as the Vice President of the Division of Institutional Advancement, the President of the Delaware State University Foundation, and as of January 2020, Chair of the 12th President’s Transition Team. She is responsible for overseeing all private fundraising for the University, alumni relations, development, and donor relations. Under her leadership, both private fundraising and alumni participation have substantially increased.

Clark Cropp began his career at KU Endowment as assistant director of gift planning in 1987. He became director of gift planning in 1990. During his directorship, he developed comprehensive financial output reports from design to documentation. He wrote KU Endowment’s original gift overview booklet, initiated and designed new financial reports for charitable remainder trust donors and beneficiaries, and developed the Elizabeth Watkins deferred gift recognition society.

Michael Morsberger came to the UCF Foundation in 2015, where he oversees management of a $175M endowment and a diverse portfolio of assets. When Morsberger arrived at UCF, after leading development teams at five major universities – public and private, the university was in the fourth year of its most comprehensive capital campaign, with a goal of $500 million. Morsberger reorganized and united the advancement team, led Foundation board members to deepen their commitments to the university and created a culture of giving that continues today. The campaign successfully closed in 2019 with over $531.5 million raised in gifts and commitments and a new downtown campus built with philanthropic, university and state funds.

Dr. Breier has led many transformative initiatives for Texas State University and the Texas State University Development Foundation.  Under her leadership, the university completed the Pride in Action Campaign in, which exceeded its $110 million goal by raising $152 million in support of the university. Recognizing the need to improve oversight of endowment funds and stewardship of endowment donors, Dr. Breier worked with the Provost and academic leadership to establish an “endowment compliance” program which has significantly increased utilization of available endowment funds in support of university priorities, from 64% in FY2013 to 95% in FY2017, and established an annual audit of endowments to ensure alignment of endowment expenditures with donor intent.

Dexter’s career in higher education began 23 years ago in 1995.  Since then he has been both directly and as a manager responsible for raising over $900 million and counting. Executive Director of the Stony Brook Foundation and Senior Vice President of the Advancement Department, Dexter Bailey has had an incredibly deep and meaningful impact on Stony Brook.