
Faculty
Conference Co-Chairs

Julie Decker
Julie Decker is president and chief executive officer of the Florida State University Alumni Association. Decker has spent 20 years as an alumni relations strategist, having also worked in the alumni associations of the University of Georgia, the University of North Carolina, and Coastal Carolina University. Through her career she has managed programming, fundraising special projects, budgeting, student leadership, operations, and the cultivation of volunteers and boards.
Decker is passionate about the practice of Alumni Relations as an intentional partner to the overall advancement strategy.
Decker holds two degrees from the University of Georgia: a Bachelor of Arts in communication studies and a Master of Education in human resources and organizational development. In addition, she has completed doctoral coursework in organizational development and higher education at UGA, studying the changing landscape of alumni relations and advancement work.

William L. Pierce
William currently serves as the Associate Vice President of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving at University of Toledo Foundation. He and his team are responsible for engaging and connecting alumni, students and friends with the University and each other. He has management oversight of all alumni programs and activities while working collaboratively with campus partners, volunteer and advisory committees to plan and implement strategies designed to increase engagement and affinity amongst alumni.
Prior to his time with the Office of Alumni Engagement, William served as the Senior Director of Undergraduate Admission at The University of Toledo where his team was responsible for the recruitment of traditional age high school students, non-traditional students, and students with a military background or affiliation.
William’s professional career in higher education spans close to twenty years and is grounded by his passion for creating access to college for all students who desire to further their education. He has had the distinct privilege of speaking to regional and national audiences on the topics of strategic recruitment and best practice enrollment strategies as well as use of innovative technologies and data science to achieve results.
While William has served the majority of his career at The University of Toledo, he has also served in director roles at Creighton University and the University of Michigan.
William received his Bachelor of Science degree in Administrative Services in 1999 and his Master of Business Administration degree in 2009, both from The University of Toledo. He is currently a PhD Candidate in Higher Education Administration, also at The University of Toledo.
Faculty

Joycelyn Blizzard
Joycelyn serves as the director of multicultural alumni engagement at Bowdoin College. Previously, Joycelyn B. Blizzard, CFRE served as the director of alumnae relations and director of the annual fund, and then as the director of development at St. Margaret's School. Joycelyn joined SMS from Beaver Country Day School. Previously, Joycelyn’s was in public service and civic engagement. That work included advocation with Demand Abolition, an organization to end the demand for commercial sex. Additionally, she’s served in the Virginia Governor's Office and The White House. While in Washington, she was formally introduced to the world of philanthropy at Democracy Alliance, a national partnership of high net-worth donors, and has not looked back.
A native of Henrico, Joycelyn earned her B.A. from the University of Richmond and an M.A. from Virginia Tech. She and her husband, Rev. Linwood Blizzard, II make their home in Heathsville, VA near Macedonia Baptist Church, where he is the pastor. The joy of her life is being with her husband and their three young children.

Rosetta L. Clay
Rosetta L. Clay is a full-time doctoral student studying Diversity & Equity in Education with an emphasis in Human Resource Development at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After more than 15 years working in philanthropy and alumni engagement in higher education, Rosetta realized her passion as her purpose and pivoted professionally to add her voice to the critical work of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI&B) with a focus on equity and belonging. As a belonging advocate seeking equity, Rosetta is committed to educating and empowering individuals, institutions, and organizations to understand the theory of belonging through a process of becoming “diverse by design.” Rosetta currently consults on various DEI&B and business projects, facilitates inclusive workshops, and presents on the journey of diversity, equity, and inclusion leading to belonging.
Rosetta has a wealth of knowledge in administrative leadership, philanthropic engagement, organizational leadership, and strategic planning. She has also led numerous teams including annual giving, special events, and marketing communications. Her experience includes leadership roles at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business (B1G Ten) and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (#1 public HBCU). She has also strategically directed alumni board development and restructuring, division planning, special events and marketing communications. Rosetta has always approached her roles from a lens of inclusivity with a goal for equitable outcomes. She understands the importance of diversity on college campuses as a reflection of the larger society which is a driving component to ensuring greater representation for minoritized individuals while educating those in the dominant population(s).
Rosetta received her bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. She earned her master’s degree in Marketing with an emphasis in Strategic Communications from The Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Sarah Schutt
Sarah Schutt is the Chief Alumni Engagement Officer for the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA) and Executive Director of the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA). She is higher education professional with 28 years of experience, most of which has been at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As the Chief Alumni Engagement Officer, Sarah supports and advances UW–Madison by leading strategy to build affinity, pride and community among the global community of 450,000 UW–Madison alumni. Her team of 35 alumni relations professionals design and deliver meaningful engagement opportunities across fifteen program areas, including a membership program serving 32,000 alumni and friends and a facility including a 1.3 acre Alumni Park.
Sarah has been with the Wisconsin Alumni Association since 2001 as the inaugural director of the alumni lifelong learning program. Previously, she worked with outreach programming in the UW School of Education’s Center on Education and Work, and spent nearly ten years working in residential life at several institutions, including UW–Madison Residence Life.
Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Iowa and a Master of Science degree from Mankato State University in Minnesota.

Terrance D. Smith
Terrance serves as the Senior Director of Student and Young Alumni Engagement at the University of Georgia (UGA). He is responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive student to young alumni transition strategy that prepares the approximately 31,000 undergraduate students at UGA to join its diverse community of more than 100,000 engaged young alumni, an important subset of the more than 355,000 UGA alumni worldwide. In addition to overseeing various UGA Alumni Relations programming initiatives, Terrance also oversees UGA’s efforts to expand the culture of student philanthropy, leading the senior class giving campaign to seven consecutive years of record setting growth, with more than 3,000 graduating students making a gift to the university in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Throughout his time in Alumni Relations, Terrance has served as a speaker at regional and national conferences on the topics of student to young alumni transition, student philanthropy, and volunteer management and training.
Prior to joining the Alumni Relations team, Terrance was a professional staff member of the residential life teams at UGA and Purdue University. Terrance’s time in university housing provided him the opportunity to manage large, complex residential communities serving various segments of the student population, including first-year students, student athletes, and international students just to name a few. In addition, Terrance’s residence life experience helped strengthen his skills in supervising, training, and coaching team members as he managed staff at various levels in the organization.
While Terrance has come to call UGA home, his family has strong roots to the Bulldogs of the SEC west, Mississippi State University (MSU). Terrance graduated from MSU with a bachelor’s degree in political science and Oklahoma State University where he received his master’s in Educational Leadership. He’s redefining what it means to be a Double Dawg, as he is a current doctoral candidate at UGA conducting dissertation research on understanding college students’ motivations for giving to their alma maters.

Katie Young
Katie Young serves as the director of alumni relations at Greenhill School in Dallas, Texas, one of the largest co-ed independent day schools in the country. As a key member of the Advancement Leadership team, she provides direction and guidance to Greenhill’s Alumni Board.
She began working at Greenhill in 2005 as a member of the communications team and moved to the alumni office in 2008. She manages all alumni programs and activities, focused on increasing strategic alumni engagement and alumni giving.
Katie has a true passion for alumni relations. She enjoys connecting with other professionals through various CASE programs and has presented at regional and national CASE conferences since 2008. In addition, she represented independent schools as a member of the CASE Alumni Engagement Metrics Beta group. Katie served on the global CASE Commission for Alumni Relations and as faculty at the CASE Summer Institute for Alumni Relations.
She holds bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma where she volunteered in the Student Activities office. She earned her master’s degree from Northeastern University focusing on nonprofit management, social media and online communities.
Guest Speakers

Cindy Fredrick
Cindy Fredrick is an inspirational leader, known for growing organizations with transformative energy, passion, and integrity. Cindy’s higher education career spans three decades at the University of Virginia. She currently serves as the senior associate vice president for engagement and annual giving and previously was the president and CEO of UVA’s student volunteer service center, Madison House. In addition to working for UVA, Cindy is a consulting vice-president for Grenzebach Glier and Associates.
As UVA’s chief alumni and parent engagement officer, Cindy supervises a team of 35 staff members, 60 students, and more than 700 volunteers, overseeing central annual giving and producing in-person and virtual events. Before the pandemic, her team implemented more than 1,200 in-person events per year, leveraging a global volunteer network. During the 16 months of the pandemic, her team produced 800 virtual events for more than 117,000 alumni, friends, and family registrations.
Cindy began her career with non-profit community-based organizations and was responsible for advancement, marketing, program services, and volunteer management. She served in leadership positions for a state-wide advocacy coalition, a children’s equity theatre, and long-term care facilities.
Cindy graduated from Luther College with a B.A. in social work and from California State University with an M.Ed. in educational administration. Cindy is an alumnus of Leadership Charlottesville, Advancement Leadership Lab, Leadership in Academic Matters, and the Fundraising School. An active volunteer with CASE, she has served in various roles, including past chair of the Summer Institute for Alumni Relations.

Anita B. Walton
Anita B. Walton serves as the Vice Chancellor of University of Advancement at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU).
Prior to joining ECSU, she served as director of diversity and talent management for CASE. She provided leadership in developing, communicating, and executing a comprehensive strategy to successfully attract, hire and maintain a continuous talent pipeline, engage and serve select CASE constituencies with significant emphasis on efforts to diversify the profession, enhance and promote student programs including CASE ASAP, the CASE Advancement Internship Program and provide oversight to the CASE Career Central.
Before CASE, Walton served at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) for five years as director of alumni relations and the last two years as assistant vice chancellor for student affairs. Prior to NCCU, she served at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) for 18 years, seven years in student affairs and 11 years in alumni relations. With a master's degree in higher education and 25 years of experience including program management, volunteer stewardship, strategic and process development and relationship building, Walton is no stranger to CASE. She has served in numerous volunteer roles, including chair of CASE III, a member of the Commission on Alumni Relations, an active contributor to CASE's opportunity and inclusion activities serving as the DIII O&I chair from 2007-2011, CASE ASAP activities and has been a frequent CASE speaker.
She earned her bachelor's degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her master's degree in education, with a concentration in higher education administration, from North Carolina State University.