Faculty
Faculty
Jan Abernathy
Jan Abernathy is the Chief Communications Officer at The Browning School, a K-12 boys' school in New York City, and has presented at various independent school industry conferences sponsored by New York Association of Independent Schools, the National Association of Independent Schools, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, New Jersey Association of Independent Schools, the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools, the Association of Independent Schools Admissions Professionals, the Enrollment Management Association, Niche, and VirCon. In addition to chairing the CASE-NAIS Conference in 2022 and co-chairing the NYSAIS Institutional Advancement Conference in 2022 and 2023, she is president of New York City Independent Schools Communications Professionals, and the co-founder of Black Advancement Networking Group, which works to gain further representation and greater professional growth of Black professionals in advancement roles in independent schools. She is also a member of the CASE Commission on Communications and Marketing, which advises that organization on those areas of the advancement profession.
She has written for NAIS’ Independent School Magazine on crisis communications, the "Black at" movement, Head/board chair communications, and diversity on boards of trustees, and for Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education's Connections Quarterly on building transformative alumni relationships. A Northwestern University graduate, Jan is currently a trustee at Grace Church School, and Tessa International School in Hoboken, NJ. She was on the board of Stevens Cooperative School, also in Hoboken, for 13 years, spending six years as chair. Her consulting firm, Jan Abernathy Strategic Communications, provides communications and DEI counsel for educational institutions and non-profits. Jan and her husband Jerome are parents of a daughter, Noe, and a son, Sam, both graduates of Stevens Cooperative School and the Dalton School.
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. He lead 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 was 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.
Marc A. Barnes
Marc A. Barnes serves as Senior Vice President, Principal Gifts and Strategic Impact Investment at UNCF where he works directly with the President & CEO to strengthen financial support for strategic impact initiatives. In this capacity, he is responsible for the president’s strategic fundraising activities and leading a team to identify opportunities to broaden UNCF’s philanthropic revenue.
Barnes is an accomplished fund development officer who has more than two decades of experience in higher education and nonprofit management. Throughout his career, he has been an asset to leadership, having worked closely with university presidents, executives, and governing boards to raise capital for strategic goals and initiatives.
Prior to joining UNCF, Barnes served as Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Dillard University, one of UNCF’s 37 historically Black college and university (HBCU) member institutions. While at Dillard, Barnes directed strategic planning and operations for fundraising, public relations, community relations, marketing and communications and strategic alumni giving initiatives from. Under his leadership, the university raised over $150 million, increased the alumni giving rate to 23%, secured the largest alumni donation on record in the amount of $1 million, and received more than $10 million from private individuals for strategic initiatives. In previous roles, Barnes served Dillard as Assistant President for Development and Alumni Relations and Director of Major Gifts.
During his term as Director of Development for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival & Foundation, Barnes helped to create and deploy a growth-focused development program and capital campaign. His leadership garnered over $8 million to complete a capital campaign dedicated to building the George & Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center, stimulated fundraising by more than 200%, and increased annual gala net revenue by 400%.
Barnes earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing at Xavier University of Louisiana, a master of arts in philanthropy & development at LaGrange College, and a doctorate in urban higher education administration at Jackson State University. He is also a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE).
He is a past recipient of the Fr. Charles Hall Award (Alumnus of the Year) at St. Augustine High School, and has been recognized by the Association of Fundraising Professionals-Greater New Orleans Chapter and HBCU Grow for his fundraising leadership and innovation.
Barnes serves on a number of boards and committees, including the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Commission on Philanthropy, the Association of Fundraising Professionals – Greater New Orleans Chapter Board of Directors, and the St. Augustine High School Board of Directors. He also co-chairs the CASE Advanced Development Strategies Conference and serves on the faculty for the CASE Conference on Leadership Development. He and his wife, Dr. Kiki Baker Barnes, have two children, Caitlin and Marc, Jr.
Amy Bronson
A national leader and award-winning pioneer in the field of Talent Management, Amy has spent 25 plus years contributing to the success of fundraising both on the frontline and behind the scenes. She has a remarkable ability to help development professionals make the right career moves and achieve success for their organization's mission. She has touched the lives of hundreds of professionals, and her impact can be seen by the increasing level of professionalism in the advancement industry as well as through the success of the institutions that she's worked for, which include Harvard Law School and Boston College. Currently managing talent, finance, and operations for a team of 270, Amy has served in leadership roles and presented at numerous conferences and other professional organizations both locally and nationally. She helped create the award winning Amplify Gender & Equity Leadership Initiative, CASE’s Competencies Model, and the CASE Academy. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she lives in Milton, MA.
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
Sue Cunningham is President and CEO of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), which supports over 3,000 schools, colleges and universities worldwide in developing their integrated advancement work (alumni relations, communications, fundraising and marketing operations). As CASE President and CEO, Ms. Cunningham provides strategic and operational leadership for one of the largest associations of education-related institutions in the world with members in over 80 countries. She started her leadership role at CASE in March 2015.
While at CASE, Ms. Cunningham has engaged CASE in two strategic planning processes. The first, which engaged thousands of CASE volunteers, resulted in Reimagining CASE: 2017-2021, and created an ambitious framework for serving CASE’s members and championing education worldwide, which included a comprehensive restructure of CASE’s volunteer leadership and governance structure. Building on the strengths of this plan, she led a recalibration exercise that resulted in Championing Advancement: CASE 2022-2027. This Plan articulates a clear strategic intent: that CASE will define the competencies and standards for the profession of advancement, and lead and champion their dissemination and application across the world’s educational institutions.
Among the key initiatives that have developed under her leadership include the redesign and delivery of a new global governance structure. In addition, CASE acquired the Voluntary Support of Education survey and created CASE’s Insights, CASE’s global research and data efforts. CASE published the first global and digital edition of CASE’s Global Reporting Standards and Guidelines, which operate as the industry-leading Standards for the profession, and launched the first global Alumni Engagement survey in addition to annual fundraising surveys. CASE created an ambitious competencies model across all advancement disciplines and a related career journey framework; opened the CASE Opportunities and Inclusion Center which focuses on equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging; and has reinvigorated a global advocacy agenda to communicate the value of education. Ms. Cunningham serves as a Trustee and Secretary for the University of San Diego, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board. She is a member of the Signature Theatre (Arlington, Virginia) Board of Directors, Chairs their Governance Committee, and sits on the Executive Committee. She is a member of the Washington Higher Education Secretariat steering committee, the International Association of University Presidents Executive Committee, and the International Women’s Forum. She has recently been named to the new, US-based Council of Higher Education as a Strategic Asset. She is the author of ‘Global Exchange: Dialogues to Advance Education’.
Prior to her appointment to CASE, Ms. Cunningham served as Vice-Principal for Advancement at the University of Melbourne where she led the Believe campaign resulting in surpassing its original $500 million goal; and the Director of Development for the University of Oxford where she led the development team through the first phase of the largest fundraising campaign outside of the United States (at the time): Oxford Thinking, with a goal of £1.25 billion. She served as Director of Development at Christ Church, Oxford and as Director of External Relations at St. Andrews University.
Before working in education, Ms. Cunningham enjoyed a career in theatre, the arts and the cultural sector. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2012, Ms. Cunningham received the CASE Europe Distinguished Service Award, and has received the coveted CASE Crystal Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. Ms. Cunningham was awarded a master’s degree from the University of Oxford, a bachelor’s degree in performing arts from Middlesex University, and is a graduate of the Columbia University Senior Executive Program.
Lee Fertig
Lee is currently the Head of School at Nueva School in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has more than 30 years of school leadership and teaching experience in a wide variety of educational settings including five international schools (in Ethiopia, Brazil, Spain, and Belgium), an independent school in New York City, and a voluntary integration public magnet school in Minneapolis. Lee is a trainer for the Principals’ Training Center (PTC), has taught in the College of Education at the University of Minnesota, and is a guest speaker on contemporary educational issues at a wide variety of community events. He provides consulting services for schools and educational organizations around the world in the areas of governance, development and fundraising, learning innovation, and school-based continuous improvement.
Lee currently serves on the global board of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and he is a former trustee of the Association for the Advancement of International Education (AAIE), the Global Issues Network (GIN), and the Sao Paulo Education Foundation (SPEF).
Nathalie Fontana
Nathalie Fontana has held executive management positions in nonprofit organizations for two decades, of which over 15 years as a specialist in higher education fundraising at prestigious institutions in Europe.
On October 1, Nathalie Fontana has re-joined the University of Oxford's Development Office as 'Associate Director Principal Gifts (Europe)'. In this role, she will establish the first Europe-based office by developing and expanding Oxford’s European major donor programmes.
Nathalie already worked for Oxford’s Development Office from 2013-2017, first as Head Development Student Support and then as Head Development Principal Gifts. Other stops in her career include leadership positions at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT Berlin), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich).
Nathalie has been a volunteer with CASE (Council of Advancement and Support in Education, case.org) for many years, is a board member of the Swiss-American Society (swiss-am.net), the Swiss Friends of Oxford University (oxfordfriends.ch) and a regular speaker at higher education advancement conferences worldwide.
Nathalie holds degrees in business, arts and nonprofit management, and fundraising.
Alex Furman
Alex Furman is a highly experienced executive leader of philanthropic, engagement and business transformation programs. He was Vice-President for Advancement at the Australian National University from 2022-2026, overseeing a tripling of philanthropic income and a successful reimagining of university's Advancement program. Prior to ANU, he was Director of Development at the University of Melbourne for the decorated Believe Campaign that secured $1.16 billion. He has also held senior and executive roles as Head of Public Relations and Development for Murdoch Children's Research Institute, where he also led a capital campaign, and leadership positions in fundraising and management in the Australian arts sector for Opera Australia and Victorian Opera. Alex is a long-standing volunteer for CASE, having co-chaired the 2025 APAC conference, and continues to serve as a member of Faculty for the CASE Academy and CASE APIEF programs. He was made a CASE Laureate in 2025 for his volunteer service. He is also a Board member of the Mietta Foundation and a National Advisory Council member for Musica Viva Australia.
Barbara Miles
Barbara Miles has worked as an advancement leader and teacher in five countries, and she is a dedicated supporter of CASE as an agent for advancing education worldwide.
Barbara was the inaugural Vice-President (Advancement) at the Australian National University, building teams, structures and processes to significantly elevate the university’s Advancement capabilities and establish a strong foundation for future achievement.
As Vice-President, Development and Alumni Engagement at the University of British Columbia, Barbara led what was, at the time, the most ambitious fundraising and alumni engagement campaign in Canadian history (2008-2015). The campaign raised $1.624 billion and engaged 130,000 alumni over the life of the campaign, exceeding both its targets on time and on budget.
Prior to joining UBC, Barbara was Associate Vice-President for Development and Campaign Co-Director at the University of Florida where she shared responsibility for planning and implementing UF's $1.5 billion campaign (2005-2012), was lead fundraiser for the Florida Philharmonic, New World Symphony (Miami) and the Florida Grand Opera, and was a high school teacher of Music and French in the UK and in the Bahamas.
Barbara was the District VIII Trustee on the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Board of Trustees (2015-2018). She also served on the CASE Global Governance Steering Committee and, in 2020, was awarded the John Lippincott Award for Global Advancement and Support of Education by CASE.
Barbara earned degrees in Music and Education at the University of Southampton, UK, and the University of London, Goldsmith's.
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 an award-winning, and Kindle best-selling author of five novels, including Justice For Emerson which came out in March 2025. www.kareneosborne.com
Guest Speakers
Jessica Elmore
Dr. Jessica Elmore is a scholar-practitioner and leader in educational advancement, known for transforming philanthropic engagement through innovative strategies. As Senior Director of Cross-Cultural Learnings at CASE she develops groundbreaking training programs that enhance professional growth, organizational performance, and stakeholder engagement. With over a decade of experience, Dr. Elmore has cultivated impactful relationships, designed award-winning programs, and raised significant support for community-focused initiatives. A dynamic communicator, she empowers individuals to navigate new spaces and create meaningful connections. Dr. Elmore's work is rooted in empathy, collaboration, and a vision for impactful engagement.
Rachel Ciporen
As an executive coach, organizational development consultant and educator, Rachel works with global executives across multiple industries and has coached more than a thousand leaders to successfully respond to strategic business challenges through expanding their behavioral repertoire, developing and communicating a clear and compelling vision, and more effectively motivating their team or division. She is a core faculty member of the Columbia University Coaching Certification Program and the Gestalt Organization and Systems Development Center.
She takes a systems approach to leadership development and understands that a leader's behavior is both a function of individual personality and the larger organizational context. She has extensive experience using multi-rater feedback with clients and helps leaders step back from their habitual mindsets and behaviors to build awareness and reflect on their style and impact on others. She coaches individual leaders as well as dyads and teams.
Ciporen received her doctorate in adult learning and leadership and her master's degree in organizational psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is a Board Certified Coach through the Center for Credentialing and Education.
Jenny Cooke Smith
Jenny Cooke Smith is the Executive Director of CASE Insights in Data, Research & Technology at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, CASE and specialises in analysing advancement trends, interpreting comparison benchmarks, and helping people understand the "stories behind the data". Prior to joining CASE, Smith spent 15 years in a variety of positions within Blackbaud’s Target Analytics, most recently leading donorCentrics™ benchmarking cohorts, providing opportunities for institutions and organisations globally to review and discuss direct marketing and annual giving trends. She joined CASE in 2019 to help members find value through using data and is most proud that through projects like CASE’s Alumni Engagement Metrics, institutions can begin to answer questions such as ‘we know engagement leads to giving, but how do we show it?’. Smith is currently co-teaching a course on CASE’s Global Reporting Standards and researching the latest trends on alumni engagement globally, enjoying opportunities to present again in-person, and working individually with CASE member institutions to develop strategies using CASE data and benchmarks.