Meet the Faculty
Institute Chair
Peter Hayashida
Peter joined Marts&Lundy in 2022, bringing experience in advancement leadership, organizational culture, and talent management, as well as planning for and executing university campaigns.
As Vice Chancellor for Advancement at University of California, Riverside from 2009 through 2021, Peter led development, alumni engagement, and communications & marketing at a Carnegie Research 1 institution enrolling 26,000 students in Southern California. In this role, Peter led UCR's first comprehensive fundraising campaign, surpassing its $300 million goal; oversaw an institutional rebranding and visual identity initiative; launched an alumni census and facilitated a transition away from dues-based alumni membership; and served in a campus leadership role during The Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. UCR is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU).
Previously, Peter spent 19 years at UCLA and was on the advancement executive team that ran and closed UCLA's second comprehensive fundraising effort. Campaign UCLA generated $3.053 billion for faculty research, student success, programs, and facilities and transformed the University's culture of philanthropy. Peter is an active CASE volunteer, former trustee, and frequent speaker and conference chair. He served for a decade on the faculty of the CASE Summer Institute in Educational Fundraising and was recognized with the Crystal Apple for Teaching Excellence.
Peter has contributed chapters to published books on campaign management; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and advancement leadership. Peter spent 10 years on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the world's largest healthcare, social service, and arts & culture organization serving LGBTQ+ individuals and communities. He earned a BA in communication studies from UCLA and an MBA from California State University, Northridge. Peter resides in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Faculty
Armin Afsahi
An accomplished and respected advancement leader with nearly 30 years of experience, Armin Afsahi began serving as Vice President for Alumni Relations and Development at The University of Chicago in April 2023. In this role, he leads the University’s strategy, direction, and organization for development, alumni relations, and campaign planning. He works closely with UChicago’s president, provost, deans, officers, and board of trustees to advance the University’s mission through the intellectual, social, professional, and philanthropic engagement of the University community.
Afsahi brings a wide range of expertise in institutional advancement, strategic management, business development, leadership, and operations. Prior to joining UChicago, he held senior roles in advancement at multiple universities including the University of Denver, UC San Diego, Georgetown University, and Harvard University, respectively. He is a member of the board of directors for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), serving on the Leadership and Governance and Finance and Investment commitees. He is a recipient of of the CASE Crystal Apple Award for Teaching Excellence.
Afsahi holds a BA in communications from UC San Diego and an MBA from the University of San Diego.
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.
Lishelle Blakemore
Lishelle Blakemore is the associate vice chancellor at UC Berkeley and vice president of the UC Berkeley Foundation, where she has worked since 1994 in various leadership capacities. She oversees university alumni relations, annual programs, external relations, foundation relations, gift planning, international relations, major gifts, marketing and communications, and student experience and diversity programs. Considered a “builder” of new programs, she designed and established the university’s first comprehensive annual and individual giving department. She has been a part of the campaign management team for the $1.44B "Campaign for the New Century," the $3.13B "Campaign for Berkeley" and the Light the Way Campaign launching in 2020.
Prior to joining Cal, Blakemore served as assistant vice president for The Pacific Group where she provided consulting and fundraising services for universities throughout the country, including UC Davis, UCLA, UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, California State University Fullerton, Texas A&M University, the University of Arizona, and Arizona State University.
Patricia (Trish) Jackson
Patricia (Trish) Jackson has close to 40 years of advancement experience at a wide variety of educational institutions and academic health centers. In June 2022 she will begin her tenure as the Chief Advancement Officer for Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts. She has also held senior leadership roles at The New School, Brown University and Smith, Wheaton and Mount Holyoke colleges. From 2015-18, she served as Interim Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations at the Medical Advancement Office for the Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth Health. She also served Dartmouth College as associate vice president for development and chief of staff for the advancement division.
Trish is an alumna of Scripps College, the women’s college in Claremont, CA, where she serves on the board. She has also served as a campaign consultant for Women Moving Millions, is on the board of Every Woman Treaty, and was on the council for the Women’s Philanthropic Institute at the Lilly School of Philanthropy in Indiana for over a decade. She and her academic neuroscientist husband, Will Millard, make their home in Norwich, Vermont
Lacie LaRue
In August, 2021, Lacie LaRue was named as the assistant vice president of advancement strategies for University of Oregon Advancement. In this leadership role, she acts as a top strategist and creative leader for the UO Advancement program; overseeing several programs, playing a key role in campaign planning and spearheading UO Advancement’s Digital Transformation initiative. Her goal is to continually find sophisticated ways to utilize data and systems to improve the giving experience, identify the next generation of philanthropic leaders and optimize the work of Advancement.
She has spent the last 20 years working in the world of higher education fundraising, with positions at the Oregon State University Foundation, University of Maryland, Portland State University and Iowa State University. She has also chaired several national CASE conferences, including the Senior Annual Giving, Multichannel Annual Giving, and Leadership Annual Giving Conferences, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy recognized her contributions to nonprofit leadership in their “40 Under 40” list in 2016.
LaRue holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Iowa State University, a master’s degree in organization leadership from Colorado State University and a certification in Digital Transformation Strategies from Cambridge Judge Business School.
Heidi Hansen McCrory
Heidi Hansen McCrory is vice president for development at Furman University and is responsible for annual and endowment support, major gifts and capital campaigns, alumni and parent relations, and donor relations and stewardship. She joined Furman in 2018 after serving four years as vice president for college relations at Kenyon College in Ohio. She has held previous advancement leadership positions at Sweet Briar College, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and New England College.
McCrory is a committed volunteer for a number of organizations including the Girl Scouts of the USA where she has served as a council board chair, board member, national delegate, cookie mom, fundraiser and speaker. In 2007, she received the Athena Award from the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce which recognizes professional women who demonstrate excellence, creativity and initiative in their business profession, who improve the quality of life for others in the community and who actively assist women in realizing their full leadership potential.
She earned a bachelor's degree in communication from Southern Methodist University and a master's degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
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.
Ginny Wise
Virginia (Ginny) Wise is Tulane University's senior vice president for advancement, overseeing alumni relations and development for the university since October 2016. Wise was originally recruited to Tulane in 2010 as the vice president of development for leadership giving.
She has almost three decades of professional advancement experience, beginning her career at Harvard University where she held a number of roles, including associate dean for development and external relations of the Divinity School, director of development of the Business School, executive director of the University Development Office, and managing director of the Harvard College Fund. She also previously served as vice president of development at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston.
Wise received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and her master's degree in education from Harvard University.