Faculty & Guest Speakers
Conference 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.
John Grice
John began his career in philanthropy as a student foundation member at Kansas State University, serving within the K-State Proud Student Campaign. This experience jump-started his passion for providing access to education through philanthropy.
Following graduation, he began his tenure in KSU Foundation’s Annual Giving department, focused on direct mail, phonathon, student philanthropy, and student life fundraising. In April of 2014, he accepted a role at the Oklahoma State University Foundation focused on next generation philanthropy with an emphasis on engaging students, young alumni, and digital donors in all seasons of life through crowdfunding, days of giving, and peer-to-peer strategies. Following his time at Oklahoma State University Foundation, John led the University of Wisconsin-Madison's annual giving team from 2018-2022; launching their first day of giving, founding digital-first leadership annual giving program, and developing an analytics-centric fundraising program. John currently serves in an inaugural role at the Barack Obama Foundation overseeing the launch of an annual giving and direct response fundraising program.
Astria Smith
Astria L. Smith is the senior executive director 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
Jake Strang is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Alumni Annual Giving at the University of Pittsburgh. In this role, he leads a central annual giving team that engages alumni constituents and secures sustainable funds for Pitt’s highest priorities. Jake is a resource and convener for annual giving staff at Pitt’s regional campuses and has primary responsibility for the operations and staff of Panthers Forward, a signature student debt relief program.
Prior to joining Pitt, Jake was the director of annual giving and alumni engagement at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. While there, he led a comprehensive annual giving program including reunions, volunteers, graduating class gift campaigns, and the school’s leadership society. In addition to annual giving responsibilities, he also was responsible for alumni marketing including newsletters, social media, alumni webinars, and the semi-annual Tepper Magazine. Jake also worked at Columbia University, where he was the senior associate director for annual fund programs. At Columbia, he served on the core team for the first five Columbia Giving Days and led the direct marketing for multiple annual funds across the university. Before joining Columbia University, 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.
Guest Speakers
James Barnard
James grew up in England and earned a degree in Theatre Studies from Lancaster University. He got a job in the Phonathon and was one of the worst-performing callers ever hired. So eventually they made him a manager, and he made it a career. After graduation, James moved to the US where he worked in annual giving and marketing roles at Centre College and the University of Louisville. In 2014, James moved to the University of Cincinnati Foundation where he serves as the Executive Director of Annual Giving and Marketing, working with both the university and its academic healthcare system.
Mitchell Bates
Mitchell Bates is the Director of The Stanford Fund, the undergraduate annual fund for Stanford University. He started in development as a student caller for Ruffalo Cody at UC Santa Cruz (go banana slugs!) where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. After leaving Santa Cruz he worked as a National Account Manager for Yelp, before joining Stanford development in 2014. Mitchell also earned a Master’s of Science in Information Systems from the University of San Francisco, but he considers himself more of a banana slug than a Don, much to the frustration of USF development.
Connie L. Cochran
Ms. Connie L. Cochran is Assistant Vice President of Alumni Relations & Special Events at Texas Southern University; prior she was Executive Director of Alumni Relations at the University of Illinois, College of Medicine. She has more than 30 years of experience creating and implementing activities to support alumni relations programs and alumni giving. She oversees outreach and communications to graduates and former students and works to increase membership. Her goals are to engage, educate and reconnect alumni to the University through involvement and financial support. Ms. Cochran also serves as an advisor to several student organizations.
Kevin Morgenstein Fuerst
Kevin F. Morgenstein Fuerst is the Executive Director of Annual Giving at the University of Vermont Foundation. Kevin is responsible for the multi-channel solicitation strategies to UVM alumni, parents, donors, and students, which includes direct mail, phonathon, texting, email marketing, crowdfunding, and leadership level giving. Kevin holds a B.A. from Colgate University and a M.Ed. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
Paul Muite
Paul Muite is the executive director of annual giving at Stony Brook University where he oversees annual programs for the campus, Stony Brook Hospital, and the Long Island State Veterans Home. Prior to Stony Brook, he was the Director for annual giving at Florida International University and Barry University and the Associate Director for Annual Giving at Georgetown University. He began his career in development at UCLA in 2003.
Paul has been a speaker at various conferences throughout his career and led multiple CASE award winning annual giving initiatives. Paul earned his bachelor's degree in political science from UCLA.
Sarishni P. Patel
What started out as a student fundraiser job in the Foundation’s phone center blossomed into a successful, and fulfilling, advancement career. During her tenure at the FSU Foundation, Patel has held roles in donor relations and stewardship, board management, and major gift fundraising.
Patel is a two-time graduate of Florida State University. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations and a Master of Science in Higher Education with a specialty in Administration & Finance
Jeffrey Shaw
With a passion for HBCUs, Mr. Shaw has held leadership roles and led numerous successful fundraising campaigns at Florida A&M University, The United Negro College Fund, Inc. (UNCF), and Texas Southern University. Mr. Shaw’s career includes hands-on and strategic-level experience in every component of development and advancement operations, from annual giving and major gift programs to donor engagement and board development. Within each of these, Shaw has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to bring people together in support of higher education.