Megan leads Fairfield’s integrated alumni engagement and annual giving team, with oversight of the Reunions, Leadership Giving, Young Alumni & Student Philanthropy, Senior Class Gift, and Giving Day initiatives. Her portfolio drives more than $3.3 million annually while strategically growing alumni participation, retention, and reactivation.

Her prior experience includes serving as Senior Associate Director for Annual Giving & Donor Participation at the University of Chicago, where she helped scale Giving Day to a it’s first $10 million record day. Before working in Advancement, Megan also project led direct marketing campaigns at the Alzheimer’s Association and earlier worked in higher education admissions.

She holds a B.A. in Communications & Theatre/Television Arts from Valparaiso University and an MBA from University of Phoenix. Megan is grateful to be a part of CASE and serves as a frequent presenter on fundraising, engagement, and data-driven giving strategies – and is driven by working and collaborating with others in the field. 

Astria L. Smith is the Vice President for Annual Giving and Alumni Relations at Southern Methodist University. She provides strategic leadership and direction for efforts that engage, solicit and steward SMU alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students and friends. Her role allows her to integrate several areas of passion and expertise, including front-line fundraising, annual giving stewardship, multi-channel direct marketing, volunteer management and alumni engagement.

Smith holds a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and master’s degrees from both Amberton University and SMU. She began her development career at Methodist Children’s Home in Waco, TX before joining SMU in 2007. As a compliment to her 18 years in the development field, Astria shares her fundraising knowledge by volunteering in the community and has served as a presenter for several networks including CASE and AGN. She also appreciates the opportunities she has to benchmark with colleagues through her participation in a variety of professional national consortiums, advisory councils and organizations.

Jake Strang is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Individual Giving, University Programs at the University of Pittsburgh. In this role, he focuses on the donor experience and pipeline from the first annual gift through the first major gift. Jake leads the donor experience officers (DXO), central major gifts, and alumni annual giving teams. He is a resource for Pitt’s regional campuses, Athletics, and has primary responsibility for the operations and staff of Panthers Forward, Pitt’s signature student debt relief program.

Prior to joining Pitt, Jake was at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. While there, he led comprehensive giving programs including reunions, volunteers, graduating class gift, and leadership societies. In addition to these responsibilities, he also was responsible for alumni marketing including newsletters, social media, webinars, and the semi-annual Tepper Magazine. Jake also worked at Columbia University. While there, he served on the core team for the first five Columbia Giving Days and led direct marketing for multiple annual funds across the university. Before joining Columbia, he was a program center manager with Ruffalo Noel Levitz. While with RNL, he managed the on-site telefunds for Columbia University and the University of South Carolina.

Jake holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina in marketing and management and a master’s degree from Columbia University in non-profit management.