Faculty
Conference Chair
Howard W. Heevner
Howard Heevner joined the University of California, Berkeley in 2019 as the executive director of annual programs. In his current role he oversees annual giving, leadership annual giving, milestone giving, next generation giving and parents philanthropy and engagement. With more than 20 years of higher education fundraising experience, he has held a number of roles.
Prior to coming to Berkeley, Heevner was the assistant vice chancellor of university development programs at UC Santa Cruz, the director of annual giving at Penn State University, the director of annual and special giving at DePaul University and the associate director of annual giving at University of Michigan. He began his career in development at the University of Iowa.
Howard has been a regular speaker at CASE conferences throughout his career and currently serves on the CASE District VII board. Heevner has also worked with more than 30 institutions across the country to review the effectiveness of their annual giving programs.
Heevner earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Iowa and his master's degree in higher education administration from Penn State.
Faculty
Adrienne Brown
Adrienne Brown is the current Executive Director of Annual Giving at New York University. In this role, she oversees the strategy and outreach from 18 team members, securing over $30 million in unrestricted funding for the University. Adrienne joined the development office at New York University 10 years ago, after holding progressively responsible roles in marketing and advertising supporting companies such as American Express, General Motors, and United HealthCare. In her 10 years, she has been responsible for launching NYU One Day - NYU’s 24-hour day of giving, Rising Violets – NYU’s crowdfunding platform, and the 1831 Fund - NYU’s senior class gift program which is now on pace to reach a historic 65% senior class participation, up from 7% when she began.
Adrienne is a member of Women in Development and African American Development Officers. She also helps oversee diversity and inclusion efforts in her department by sitting on the Belonging and Inclusivity Committee which helps ensure inclusivity for all, specifically in the area of development and philanthropy. In her spare time, Adrienne enjoys spending time with her husband and family and is a proud alum of NYU, receiving her Master’s in Higher Education Administration in 2016. She’s also a proud MSU Spartan, originally hailing from East Lansing, Michigan – Go Green!
Jenny Cooke Smith
Jenny Cooke Smith es consultora estratégica Senor para CASE, con un enfoque en AMAtlassm, el recurso global para métricas, evaluaciones comparativas y análisis relacionados con Advancement.
Jenny se especializa en analizar tendencias de Advancement, interpretar puntos de referencia comparativos y ayudar a las personas a comprender las "historias detrás de los datos". En esta función, es responsable de desarrollar y liderar grupos de cohorte facilitados para ayudar a los miembros a comprender mejor los resultados de avance por área de práctica, informando así el liderazgo intelectual y las mejores prácticas.
Antes de unirse a CASE, Jenny pasó 15 años en una variedad de posiciones dentro de Target Analytics de Blackbaud, más recientemente liderando cohortes de evaluación comparativa de donorCentrics ™, que brindan oportunidades para que las instituciones y organizaciones a nivel mundial revisen y discutan el marketing directo y las tendencias de donaciones anuales. Durante su tiempo en este cargo, creó y amplió los grupos de cohorte de educación superior, estimuló el desarrollo para analizar el impacto de iniciativas más nuevas dentro de la recaudación de fondos, como los días de donaciones, el crowdfunding y el análisis de donaciones de nivel medio, y se asoció con oficinas en Canadá, el Reino Unido y Australia para ofrecer resultados específicos para las ONG en esos mercados de recaudación de fondos. Jenny también ha sido voluntaria de CASE y oradora frecuente en conferencias de CASE.
Brian Gawor
Brian Gawor’s focus is research and strategy to help propel both alumni engagement and fundraising results of clients. Brian has 20 years of higher education experience in student affairs, enrollment management, alumni engagement and development.
His efforts supported the achievement of record enrollment at Knox. He then joined the college’s $3 million Knox Fund as a fundraiser. Most recently, Gawor served for four years as director of development for the College of Fine Arts at Illinois State University. He has worked to direct RNL’s fundraising research, providing actionable insights to hundreds of clients each year, for the past six years.
He regularly presents at professional conferences, including CASE and AFP. He also hosts a popular Fundraising Voices podcast, and has regularly been featured in industry publications and webinars, including CASE, NonProfitPro, the Chronicle of Philanthropy and Inside Higher Ed.
Gawor holds a master’s degree from Western Illinois University and is currently completing a doctorate at Illinois State University, where he is studying higher education alumni response, predictive analytics of donor response and industry trends.
Peter Moes
Peter Moes brings over a decade of Annual Giving experience to Advanced Annual Giving Strategies. He currently serves as the Director of Annual Giving for the University of Utah. Within his role he oversees all aspects of University Advancement’s annual giving efforts and advises individual campus areas on their annual giving strategy. Peter has also served as the Interim Director of Donor Relations and Communications at the University of Utah.
Prior to joining the University of Utah, Peter was a fundraising Program Consultant for Harris Connect. Working with clients across the country, his efforts focused on annual giving programs with an emphasis on phonathon strategy, management and caller training.
Peter received a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from the University of South Carolina. Peter began his career in Student Affairs at the University of Georgia where he became involved in student philanthropy, which ultimately shaped his future career path.
Christina Sebastian
Christina Sebastian is Senior Executive Director, Donor Relations and Broad-based Marketing at Columbia University, a position she has held since 2017. Her responsibilities include overseeing the Annual Fund Programs team, comprised of fourteen members, who are responsible for the direct marketing efforts across campuses, including Columbia’s graduate and undergraduate schools, and special projects, as well as the signature 24-hour fundraising event, Columbia Giving Day, which annually raises more than $20 million dollars and is in its 10th year. In addition, Christina leads the central Donor Relations and Stewardship team of nine, who are responsible for recognizing, engaging, soliciting, and stewarding University donors and prospects.
Christina has more than 22 years of institutional advancement experience. She began her career as a student phonathon caller while completing her BA at Penn State. While earning her MBA, she started her professional advancement career at the University at Albany within its central Annual Fund and then at the School of Education as its director of development. Christina spent eight years at Albany Law School, moving from the Major Gifts team to become the director of Alumni Affairs, where she helped forge new relationships and collaborations between the Development and Alumni Affairs offices. Prior to joining Columbia, Christina was the director of Fordham University’s annual fund, where she implemented new initiatives including the Fordham Fund brand, student philanthropy committee, student giving, young alumni leadership giving levels, and a consistent giving society, recognizing those donors who have given to the University 20 years or more.
Maggie Utsch
Maggie Utsch joined the advancement team at the College of Saint Benedict in 2012 as director of annual giving. But in her heart, she’s been a Bennie since she arrived on campus as a student in 1996. That alumna experience fuels her drive to ensure that the women who choose Saint Ben’s get the chance to experience it as well. She also takes her passion and drive for education and community by serving as the vice-chair of the Paynesville Area Community Foundation and a School Board Member for District 741.
She currently oversees the annual giving program with a data driven mindset. She is curious and loves a good brainstorming session, but is also able to put those ideas into action. More importantly, measure the results and implement changes when needed.
In today’s challenging higher-ed climate, Maggie and her team continue to generate year-over-year improvement in annual giving. In order to do that, Maggie has had to learn to balance her natural caution with a willingness to seek out and try new tactics and programs. The end result is innovation with a healthy dose of competitiveness that helps her and her team reach their ever-increasing goals