Faculty
Meet Your Chair
Liesl Elder
Liesl Elder directs the University Development Office, overseeing philanthropic fundraising for the University across the academic divisions, museums and libraries. Her teams work worldwide, including the University’s offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo. She came to Oxford in in 2011 to lead the Oxford Thinking Campaign, managing its relaunch from a £1.25bn to a £3bn campaign, and seeing it though to a successful conclusion last year. The Oxford team won the 2020 CASE Platinum Award for Best Practice in Fundraising.
Liesl has worked in educational fundraising since 1993, beginning her career at the US liberal arts colleges Carleton College and Oberlin College before serving as Campaign Director for Santa Clara University in California. She moved to the UK in 2004 to become Director of Development and Communications at Durham University, followed by a few years in Scotland as Director of Development at the University of Edinburgh.
Faculty
Gord Arbeau
Gord Arbeau is a seasoned and respected leader with more than 25 years’ experience leading advancement, communications and marketing teams in the public and private sectors. For the past 16 years, Arbeau has held senior roles in public universities in Canada, leading the communications and marketing efforts and supporting their advocacy efforts and the raising of private and public funds. Currently, he leads the advancement and external relations activities for Brock University, a public comprehensive institution with over 19,000 students and 1,000 faculty and staff. His team is responsible for Development, Stewardship, Alumni Engagement, Marketing/Communications and Advancement Services. His teams have received multiple CASE Circle of Excellence awards and CASE District citations. He is a past member of the CASE Board of Trustees, the past chair of the CASE Commission on Communications and Marketing and the current Vice-Chair of the CASE U.S.-Canada Council.
Amy Bronson
Amy Bronson is associate vice president of advancement resources and strategic talent management at Boston University, where she is engaged in building and sustaining an outstanding team of advancement professionals who are undertaking an enormous challenge: the first comprehensive campaign in the history of the university.
She oversees the talent management program for a staff of 225 including 17 schools and colleges at the university. Encompassing talent acquisition, organizational and learning development, human resource management, finance and administration, she partners with colleagues across the university to ensure the advancement team is ready to meet the campaign challenge.
Prior to joining BU in September 2010, Bronson led the strategic staffing initiative for the "Light the World Campaign" at Boston College. Before joining BC in 2005, she was at Harvard Law School where her many roles included managing special events, curriculum planning and program administration for executive legal education, and as a fundraiser and administrator at Baker House Alumni Center. Her prior experience includes working for Tiffany & Co. in Chicago and Houston and teaching in Athens, Greece. With more than 20 years of advancement experience, she has served in leadership roles and presented at numerous conferences.
Chris Cox
Chris joined the University of Edinburgh in February 2016, following ten years in his previous role as Director of Development at The University of Manchester, and earlier roles in alumni Relations abs fundraising at UCL and Newcastle University.
He has been active with the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), as a previous European representative on their US-based Commission on Alumni Relations, and as a Faculty member at Institutes for Educational fund-raising in Europe and Africa. He chaired the CASE Europe Conference for Educational Advancement in Brussels in 2016 and Birmingham in 2017. He was Chair of the Ross Group of UK Higher Education Development Directors in 2011 and 2012 and was a member of the Education Task Force for the UK Government’s Giving Summit in 2012. He is currently co-chairing the CASE Atlas Advisory Board - an international initiative to develop the first global survey with consistent metrics for educational fundraising, alumni relations and communications and marketing.
He holds a BA in History from UCL and an MA in International Political Economy from Newcastle University. He has been a Board member at the Royal Northern College of Music since 2013.
Sue Cunningham
Since 2015, Sue Cunningham has provided executive leadership for one of the largest education-related associations in the world serving over 3,200 members in 80 countries. Prior to CASE, she served as Vice-Principal for Advancement at The University of Melbourne and Director of Development at University of Oxford. She held advancement roles at Christ Church, Oxford and University of St Andrews. As a CASE volunteer, she received the CASE Europe Distinguished Service Award and a CASE Crystal Apple for Teaching Excellence.
Cunningham is a Trustee at University of San Diego, a member of Signature Theatre (Arlington, Virginia, United States of America) Board of Directors, a member of Washington Higher Education Secretariat Steering Committee, and is a member of the International Women’s Foundation.
She is an Honorary Fellow of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Nathalie Fontana
Nathalie Fontana has held executive management positions in nonprofit organizations for two decades, including 15 years as a higher education fundraising specialist.
Since March 2020, she has been appointed as Director of Development and Alumni Relations at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) in Berlin. Previously, she held leadership positions in development at prestigious European institutions such as the University of Oxford and the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH in Zurich and EPF in Lausanne).
As a proven practitioner, Nathalie’s extensive experience ranges from major and principal giving, with a focus on global corporations and international foundations, to campaigning, alumni fundraising and stewardship of donors.
Nathalie is an enthusiast who is passionate about helping young people to develop their career in the higher education fundraising space. That is why she has been involved as a volunteer for CASE Europe for many years. For example, as Co-Chair of the fundraising track for the CASE Europe Annual Conferences from 2017-2019. While at EPFL, she established a 'CASE Graduate Trainee’ position as first university in continental Europe participating in the program. She also regularly speaks at fundraising conferences and continuing education programs in Europe and beyond.
Siôn Lutley
Siôn Lutley is a partner with fundraising consultancy More Partnership. He advises a wide range of leading universities and charities, primarily in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australasia. He is a CASE Laureate, former chair of the Asia-Pacific Institute in Educational Fundraising, and was on the team that produced CASE’s first Global Reporting Standards in 2021. Prior to consultancy, Siôn spent 25 years in the United Kingdom and Australia fundraising, latterly as executive director advancement at The University of Melbourne, playing a key role in the AU$1 billion Believe Campaign. He has led advancement teams at the universities of Bristol, Bath, and Melbourne, as well as being involved in numerous £/$100 million+ campaigns.
James H. Moore, Jr.
Jim Moore joined the University of Illinois Foundation in July 2015 as president/CEO. He is a nationally recognized and award-winning fundraising professional with measurable and meaningful success in public and private institutions of higher education of varying size and scope.
Jim serves as the University of Illinois’ chief development officer and provides strategic oversight and support for a comprehensive fundraising operation for the University of Illinois System and its three universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield.
After beginning his career in higher education admissions and financial aid, Jim embarked on a fundraising career that now spans three decades. Prior to joining the Foundation, Jim served as president and CEO of the University of Arizona Foundation and president and CEO of the University of Northern Colorado Foundation. He previously held senior-level positions at Northwest Missouri State University, Clarkson University, University of Arizona, and Iowa State University.
Jim is a widely respected leader in higher education advancement, serving on the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) National Committee on Institutionally Related Foundations and the CASE Commission on Philanthropy. He currently serves as an At-Large member of the CASE Board of Trustees and was CASE Board Chair from 2019-2021.
Jim earned a master’s degree in management systems from Clarkson University and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Northwest Missouri State.
Karen E. Osborne
Karen is passionate about the power of education to change our world for the better. She is a volunteer, philanthropist, and trustee, living her beliefs. She has volunteered for CASE for over 30 years. CASE awarded Karen the Crystal Apple for Outstanding Teaching and Public Speaking and honored her in 2014 with The Ashmore Award for Outstanding Service to the Profession.
For seven years, Karen has served as an adjunct faculty member for Johns Hopkins University’s graduate certificate program in nonprofit management.
Nationally and internationally recognized as an excellent consultant, executive coach, and presenter, Karen receives invitations from all over the United States and the world. She frequently presents at local, national and international conferences.
For 18 of Karen’s 43 years in philanthropy and institutional advancement, Karen served as a frontline fundraiser and leader including NY State Department of Education; Director of Development, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY; and Vice President for Advancement at Trinity College in Hartford, CT responsible for development, alumni relations, information systems and marketing and communications. For the past 25 years, Karen served as President and now Senior Strategist for The Osborne Group, Inc. www.theosbornegroup.com
Karen is also a debut novelist. “Getting It Right,” came out June 6, 2017. Her second novel Tangled Lies came out in July 2021. www.kareneosborne.com
Paul Rucker
Since 2009, Paul has served as senior alumni relations officer at the University of Washington, one of the world’s leading public research universities with 59,000 students on three campuses, 20,000 faculty and staff and more than 475,000 alumni worldwide. As vice president for alumni and stakeholder engagement, Paul serves as executive director of the UW Alumni Association, a 130-year non-profit organization committed to advancing higher education in the State of Washington and supporting the UW. Paul is a member of the UW President’s Cabinet and the Executive Team for University Advancement, which leads the planning and execution of Be Boundless — For Washington, for the World, the UW’s ambitious $5 billion campaign to transform the student experience, drive public good, expand impact and empower innovation.
From 1992 to 2004, Paul served in student affairs and workforce development leadership roles at Washington community and technical colleges. Paul served as executive director of international programs at Shoreline Community College from 1998 to 2004 where he led the planning and execution of international student services – international marketing/admissions, advising and retention – study/teach abroad programs, international workforce training and curricular transformation. At Edmonds Community College, Paul led international business internship programs and was the founding director the Washington State Community College Consortium for Study Abroad (WCCCSA), one of the nation’s leading community college study/teach abroad programs.
Paul is a member of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Board of Trustees and on the Board of Directors of the Council of Alumni Association Executives (CAAE). He is frequent speaker on the strategic integration of alumni relations in higher education and alumni legislative advocacy program administration.