Faculty
Meet Your Chair
Colin Hennessy
Colin Hennessy brings over 15 years of professional fundraising and management experience with expertise in annual giving, alumni engagement, segmentation strategy, data analysis, and more. He is recognized as an industry leader with a proven track record of developing philanthropic pipelines through thoughtful interventions informed by behavioral economics, data science, stewardship, and engagement.
As Vice President for Alumni and Donor Engagement, Colin leads a team dedicated to supporting the University of Iowa through thoughtful and innovative engagement and programming—overseeing alumni engagement, communication and marketing, events, and stewardship efforts.
Before joining the UI Center for Advancement in 2022, Colin held leadership positions at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago. In addition, he was a senior vice president and practice area leader at the fundraising management consulting firm Grenzebach Glier and Associates. Colin earned his bachelor’s degree in communication and media studies from the University of Iowa, a master’s degree in adult and distance education from the University of Phoenix, a master’s in public policy and administration from Iowa State University, and a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the 2019 Diane Thompson Award Winner for Excellence in Annual Giving from the Northeast Annual Giving Conference Association. In addition, Colin is a CASE Crystal Apple Award-winning speaker and teacher, in addition to the numerous CASE Circle of Excellence Awards presented to teams under his leadership.
Faculty
Skylar Beaver
Skylar Beaver is the Assistant Director of Advancement at The Lawrenceville School, where she spearheads annual giving campaigns and oversees alumni and family engagement, donor relations, stewardship, and advancement services. With a strong global perspective, she also leads international fundraising initiatives. Her extensive experience spans 16 years in the development field, including leadership roles at The Spence School, Washington and Lee University, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
A respected voice in the industry, Skylar is a frequent presenter with CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education), a past chair of STAFF (Sharing the Annual Fund Fundamentals), and chairs NEAGC (Northeast Annual Giving Conference). Her exceptional contributions have earned her accolades, including the 2023 Diane Thompson Award for Excellence in Annual Giving from NEAGC, a CASE Crystal Apple Award for outstanding speaking, and the distinguished CASE Laureate honor.
Skylar holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and a Master's in Nonprofit Management from SUNY Brockport.
Tanya Hickson
Having recently joined the University of Miami to oversee the Donor Experience team, Tanya brings more than 15 years of experience working in the non-profit sector, particularly in the areas of alumni relations and fundraising, membership, global engagement, staff coaching, and supervision. Her current role focuses on donor recognition, traditional and innovative stewardship, and donor retention.
Prior to joining the University of Miami, Tanya led the Reunion and Class Giving team at the University of Chicago, with focus on annual giving efforts with college reunion alumni, peer-to-peer fundraising, volunteer management, reunion stewardship, and reunion event planning. Previously, she was a UChicago alumni community liaison responsible for regional volunteer leadership spanning more than ten states.
Tanya was a speaker for the 2021 Midwest Meeting of the Minds “Reunions and Class Giving Forum” and for the CASE District V 2019 conference, discussing best practices in campus collaboration. Having hired and developed advancement staff, she also served as an internal panelist with UChicago’s Central HR and ARD Talent Management teams in supporting fellow managers with strategies for cultivating diversity in hiring.
Earlier in her career, Tanya held key roles in young professional volunteer leadership development, member engagement, and corporate fundraising with Atlanta-based technical association TAPPI, Perimeter College (GPC) at Georgia State University, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While at GPC, she had the opportunity to speak on community college fundraising alongside colleagues at the CASE District III preconference in 2011. She got her start in development working as a community manager of Relay for Life campaigns with American Cancer Society in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A bilingual professional, Tanya also lived and worked in Latin America for nearly two years, serving as both a volunteer manager of staff for a faith-based facility in Nicaragua and an English education intern in Venezuela.
Tanya holds a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Language and Communication Media and a graduate certificate in Spanish translation from American University, a graduate certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a graduate certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace from the University of South Florida.
Megan Rajski
Megan joined Fairfield University, a private Jesuit Catholic University, in Fairfield, CT during the summer of 2021 as the Director of Annual Giving. In her role she oversees and collaborates on a robust portfolio responsible for contributing $3.3 million to the Fairfield Fund and leads strategy on alumni participation efforts. She directly oversees the Reunions, Leadership Annual Giving, Senior Class Gift, Young Alumni, & Telefund teams. Additionally Megan spearheads Giving Day efforts and all direct marketing strategy and execution.
Prior to joining Fairfield, Megan was Senior Associate Director, Donor Participation and Annual Giving for the University of Chicago, where she oversaw strategic initiatives supporting annual giving and donor participation goals. Present for the planning and execution of the creation of Giving Day, Megan’s responsibility and ownership of the program grew in the 6+ Giving Days and under Megan’s leadership UChicago saw its most successful day raising an institution record ($10 million raised in the 2021). She credits her success in exceeding goals and driving revenue and alumni participation at UChicago by ensuring the use of multi-channel solicitation strategies, data analytics, wide segmentation integration and diverse and mission focused messaging. In 2019 Megan received the UChicago Gates Award, voted on by her colleagues for outstanding contributions to fundraising.
Before joining University of Chicago, Megan spent four years with the Alzheimer’s Association, one of the top 50 non-profits in the US, where she was project manager for direct marketing efforts in acquisition, renewal and upgrades to 10 million+ donors. Prior to her work in Annual Giving, Megan spent seven years in university admissions, at Illinois Institute of Art and Westwood College, both in Chicago.
Megan received a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Theatre/Television Arts from Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, IN, and an MBA from University of Phoenix(before it was cool to be online.:)). She is ever present in the AG space as a presenter and organizer for annual giving conferences, and spent 10 years involved with the Board of Directors of New Leash on Life, an animal rescue non-profit.
Dominique Matteson
Dominique Matteson is the Associate Vice President for Annual Giving at the University of Connecticut (UConn) Foundation, Inc. In this role, Dominique is responsible for providing strategic direction for the Annual Giving team to build a sustainable best-in class annual giving program focused on increasing dollars raised, donor growth, and overall program health. In this role, Dominique oversees a team who run the day-to-day annual giving operations, including student philanthropy, digital fundraising, leadership annual giving, faculty and staff giving, omnichannel solicitation, and the UConn Foundation’s call center.
She has more than fifteen years of experience working in higher-education Advancement and has been immersed in every aspect of annual giving during that time. Prior to joining the UConn Foundation, Dominique was the Director of Annual Giving at Trinity College in Hartford, CT where she led a comprehensive annual giving program that included giving days, leadership annual giving, reunion giving, senior class gift campaigns, and volunteer recruitment and management. Dominique has also held positions at Yale University and the UConn Law School where her responsibilities included the management of annual giving solicitations and volunteer management.
Dominique holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut in English.