Faculty
Meet Your Chair
Lorna Somers
Lorna Somers is recognised internationally as a teacher/facilitator in the field of Higher Education and Institutional Advancement speaking at educational and arts organisations throughout the world. On August 15, 2022 she became Executive Director of the Mohawk College Foundation.
An accomplished and successful fundraiser, Somers spent the past 35 years at McMaster University where she has been engaged in securing some of the largest charitable gifts in Canadian history. She led two university-wide, comprehensive campaigns, both with a focus on volunteer and academic participation. She has also structured and led targeted campaigns for McMaster's Museum of Art and Faculty of Health Sciences, the University's Student Centre, and secured support for numerous endowments establishing scholarships, bursaries, chairs, and professorships.
Somers is co-author of the definitive Canadian fundraising text, Planned Giving for Canadians and the recipient of numerous international awards for excellence in teaching and leadership.
Guest Speaker
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.
Faculty
Rashid Bashir
Rashid Bashir is Dean of The Grainger College of Engineering, the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previously, he was the Executive Associate Dean at the Carle-Illinois College of Medicine (2017–present), the Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering, Head of Department of Bioengineering (2013–2017), and Director of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory (a campus-wide clean room research facility) (2007–2013). Prior to joining UIUC, he was at Purdue University (1998–2007) with faculty appointments in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Bioengineering. From 1992 to 1998 he worked at National Semiconductor Corporation in Santa Clara, CA as Sr. Engineering Manager.
He graduated with a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1992. He has authored or co-authored over 250 journal papers, over 200 conference papers and conference abstracts, and over 120 invited talks, and has been granted 49 patents. He received the NSF Faculty Early Career Award, the 2012 IEEE EMBS Technical Achievement Award, and the Pritzker Distinguished Lectureship Award from BMES in 2018. He is a fellow of IEEE, AIMBE, AAAS, BMES, IAMBE, RSC, APS, and NAI. He has been involved in 3 startups that have licensed his technologies. He was part of the core founding team and co-chair of the curriculum committee for the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the world’s first engineering based College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
His research group is interested in developing new technologies for precision and personalized medicine, and 3D bio-fabrication of cellular systems. Using bionanotechnology, BioMEMS, and lab on chip, he is working at the interface of biology and engineering from the molecular to the tissue scale, and aiming to make an impact on grand challenges in health and medicine including cancer, sepsis, and others.
In addition to leading his own research group, he was the PI on an NSF IGERT on Cellular and Molecular Mechanics and Bionanotechnology and PI on an NIH Training Grant on Cancer Nanotechnology. He is also co-PI on a recently funded National Research Traineeship (NRT) from NSF. He is also Associate Director and UIUC site lead on an NSF Science and Technology Center on Emergent Behavior of Integrated Cellular Systems (with MIT, Georgia Tech, and other partners).
Andrew P. Daire
A driven and enthusiastic leader, Dr. Andrew P. Daire joined the VCU School of Education as its new dean in June 2016.
Daire came to VCU from the University of Houston, where he served as the College of Education’s associate dean for research for nearly two years. His resume also includes more than 25 years of experience in higher education, 13 of which came at the University of Central Florida, where he co-founded the university's Marriage and Family Research Institute, also served as the College of Education’s associate dean for research, among other accomplishments. A prolific researcher and scholar, Daire has received over $16 million in external funding to support his research in family stability and mobility with economically marginalized couples and families and his secondary research interest in career development STEM recruitment and retention. He remains research and scholarly active in these areas through refereed and scholarly publications and presentations along with being a Senior Fellow in the Consortium for Family Strengthening Research.
Combining an academic and clinical background in counseling and psychology with expertise in research, Daire's style of transformative leadership emphasizes personal and professional development, and motivating faculty, staff and students towards excellence, innovation and impact in their work every day.
A big believer in the value of community engagement as well, Daire believes research and instruction are at their best (and most innovative) when focused on serving the public, particularly those most in need.
Jay Davenport
Jay Davenport, CFRE, serves as vice president of Development and Alumni Relations for Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Health.
As VCU’s chief development and alumni officer, Jay leads fundraising and engagement efforts for the VCU enterprise, including the Monroe Park Campus, the health sciences campus and VCU Health. Areas under his purview include Advancement Solutions, alumni relations, annual giving, corporate and foundation relations, development and alumni communications, donor engagement, planned giving, presidential advancement, principal giving, regional philanthropy and the universitywide development staff.
Jay joined VCU and VCU Health in 2017 in the middle of a $750 million campaign and helped steer the campaign to a successful conclusion, raising over $840 million. In the past six years, Jay has helped VCU and VCU Health raise over $1 billion and is currently designing the first comprehensive campaign for the VCU and VCU Health.
Jay has previously led fundraising teams at Wake Forest University, including as assistant vice president of college development, assistant vice president of major gifts and associate vice president and campaign director. He has also served as director of development and team leader at Rice University and held fundraising positions as a college development director at the University of Memphis College of Business and Wright State University College of Engineering. He began his higher education career as an assistant dean of admissions at Wittenberg University.
Jay has served on the board of directors for Make-A-Wish of Greater Virginia and the Benedictine Schools of Richmond. Jay holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Xavier University and a master's degree in higher education administration from Ball State University.
Linda Durant
Linda Durant, CASE Laureate, was vice president of development at CASE. She was responsible for setting fundraising priorities, identifying partnership opportunities, and devising strategies to secure funding for new services, products, and opportunities for CASE members. Since retiring in 2020, Durant has continued to be active as a volunteer conducting CASE @ Campus and consulting on various fundraising projects.
Linda was previously at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, where she served as senior vice president for university advancement for more than 15 years. Her accomplishments while at Widener included completing the largest campaign in the institution's history and closing its largest-ever gift in support of the institution's goals to endow student aid, ensure faculty excellence, support new program initiatives, and meet capital project objectives. Prior to this role, Linda was vice president for institutional advancement for Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts. She is a seasoned professional with more than 30 years in advancement.
Linda is a long-time volunteer of CASE, having served on the CASE Board of Trustees, the Philanthropy Commission, and chair of CASE Districts I and II. She is also a frequent presenter at CASE conferences and author of several articles in Currents, CASE's flagship publication.
Karl Miller-Lugo
Karl Miller Lugo is vice president for advancement and alumni engagement at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he oversees UTSA’s philanthropic enterprise, which includes principal/major gifts, development, annual giving, planned giving, donor relations, athletics resource management, and operations and talent management. He also leads the university’s Office of Alumni Relations, which is responsible for building affinity with the university’s 131,000 living alumni.
Most recently, Karl was vice president in the education practice of Bentz Whaley Flessner, where he focused on campaign planning and management, major and principal gifts, advancement assessments, and building processes for comprehensive fundraising strategy and accountability.
Prior to joining the firm, Karl was Executive Director for Fundraising at the University of Texas-Austin, oversaw principal, major, and annual giving programs, and managed the successful completion of the $3 billion Campaign for Texas in partnership with campus chief development officers. With over twenty years in development and higher education, Karl has held senior leadership positions at public and private universities.
An active member of CASE, Karl has served on the CASE Commission on Philanthropy, the CASE Diversity Recruitment Advisory Group, and the faculty of several conferences.
He holds bachelor’s degrees in public relations and Spanish from Western Kentucky University and an MBA from the Gordon Ford College of Business at Western Kentucky University.
Susan L. Parish, PhD, MSW
Susan Parish is Dean of the College of Health Professions and Sentara Professor of Health Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University. She previously served as Dean of the Bouvé College of Health at Northeastern University. At Brandeis University, she was the inaugural Marks Professor of Disability Policy, and founding director of the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy. As an assistant professor of social work at UNC Chapel Hill, she also led the Developmental Disabilities Training Institute.
As dean, her priorities are in diversifying the health care workforce and improving the affordability of health professional education. Parish’s scholarship examines the health and well-being of children and adults with disabilities and their families. Her work has yielded more than 140 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her research has been funded by the NIH, US Departments of Agriculture and Education, and a range of state and foundation sources. She has won numerous teaching and research awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Public Health Association Disability Section, the Research Award from the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and the Distinguished Research Award from the Arc of the United States. She is a Fellow of both the American Association on Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities and the Society of Social Work and Research.
Parish holds a BA in English literature and an MSW from Rutgers University and earned her PhD in Public Health from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She also completed an NIH-funded postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Waisman Center.
Dale Wright
Dale Wright serves as associate vice chancellor for advancement at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (UIUC). In this role, besides managing a small portfolio of donors and prospects, he provides vision, strategic leadership, mentoring, and coaching to a portfolio of chief advancement officers and deans and academic and university leaders.
Prior to this position, he served at UIUC as the associate dean & chief advancement officer for The Grainger College of Engineering with responsibility for the strategy and operations in fundraising and constituent engagement. As campaign director for the college’s $550M goal, as part of the "With Illinois" $2.65B campaign (original goal of $2.25B), he led the college in exceeding the goal by 21%. Additionally, the college secured 25% of the overall campaign total.
Over the last 20+ years, Wright has held a variety of alumni and fundraising engagement roles in higher education. He has guided several deans, academic leaders and university leadership through the campaign planning process and execution, over three $1B+ comprehensive campaigns. He is an experienced principal and major gift fundraiser, mentor, and leader, designing engagement programs to help teams and volunteers meet philanthropic goals.
Wright is an active CASE volunteer, having served on district and national committees, and presently as a faculty member/speaker at CASE conferences and other CASE educational programs. Wright also holds membership in organizations such as the African American Development Officers Network, the Association of Fundraising Professionals and is involved in other non-profit work, including serving on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the American Legion Boys State of Missouri (Missouri Boys State). He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Missouri (Mizzou).