As a catalyst for advancing education worldwide, CASE experts inspire, challenge, and equip communities of professionals to act effectively and with integrity to champion the success of their institutions.

​Interviews with CASE experts or additional information about the organization can be obtained by contacting [email protected].

Sue Cunningham

President & CEO

Areas of Expertise:

• Global Leadership 

• Higher Education Development & Fundraising 

• Change Management

As president and CEO of CASE, Sue 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. Appointed in March 2015, Sue joined CASE from the University of Melbourne where, as vice-principal for advancement, she worked with the vice chancellor in leading a campaign to raise AUS$500 million and building the advancement team across the university. Prior to her work in Australia, Sue served as director of development for the University of Oxford where she led a development team in the execution of the largest fundraising campaign outside of the United States: the Oxford Thinking Campaign, with a goal of £1.25 billion. During this time, she was also responsible for the establishment of the University of Oxford's first China office, based in Hong Kong. She is currently working on a new book—Global Exchange: Dialogues to Advance Education—to be published by CASE in 2021.

Rob Henry

Vice President, People, Culture, and Talent

Areas of Expertise:

• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 

• Talent Management  

Rob Henry is vice president of people, culture, & talent at CASE where he is responsible for creating an overall global strategy for achieving CASE's vision and mission related to talent management and for guiding conference programming, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, research, and the CASE Library. Formerly an active CASE volunteer speaker and adviser, Rob joined the CASE staff in 2006 as executive director of emerging constituencies, later adding the responsibility for online educational programs. Also in 2006, he was awarded the CASE Crystal Apple Award for Teaching Excellence. He previously held advancement management positions at Yale University, the University of Connecticut Foundation and Michigan State University. 

 Cara Giacomini

Vice President of Data, Research, and Technology

Areas of Expertise:

• Higher Education and Fundraising Data Analytics
  Including using data to improve donor outcomes.
• Higher Education Research and Surveying
• Analytics, Benchmarking, and Metrics
• Cultivating a Data Culture Through Fostering Collaboration
  Integrating Data & Data Storytelling

Cara Giacomini is the vice president of data, research, and technology for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. In this role, she heads CASE’s AMAtlas initiative—a primary resource and service provider for data, benchmarking, analytics and original research to the educational advancement community Most recently, she was at the University of Washington where she was their director of analytics for its University Advancement department. There she was instrumental in building a strong data culture where she improved donor outcomes at all levels and pioneered efforts to build infrastructure and expertise in digital analytics.

Brian Flahaven

Vice President, Strategic Partnerships

Areas of Expertise:

• Charitable Giving 

• Endowments 

• Higher Education Advocacy 

• College and University Foundations

Brian Flahaven is the vice president of strategic partnerships. He directs CASE's government relations activities and tracks federal and state legislative and regulatory issues of concern to CASE members.

Angélica Careaga 

Director, CASE Latin America 

Areas of Expertise:

• International Alumni Engagement
• Marketing & Communications on a Shoestring Budget
• Cross-cultural Coalition & Alliance Building
• Private-public Partnership Development
  Emphasis on under-resourced areas

As Director of CASE Latin-America, Angélica Careaga works with schools, colleges and universities across the region to build capacity and strengthen their alumni relations, communications, fundraising, marketing, communications, and other external relations programs. Before joining CASE, she worked in the Mexico City office of the University of New Mexico where she advised and assisted in promotions and overall marketing strategies, serving as the liaison between UNM and Mexican universities and government agencies as well as other universities and government agencies in Latin America.

Heather Hamilton

Executive Director, CASE Asia-Pacific 

Areas of Expertise:

• Cross-cultural Community Development  
• Stakeholder & Volunteer Management
  Focus on Stakeholder Lifecycle Development
• Industry Sponsorship & Partnerships
• Strategic Planning & Crisis Management
• Talent Management & Remote Leadership

As executive director of CASE Asia-Pacific, Heather Hamilton oversees the development and delivery of CASE training and professional development programs and services that support alumni relations, advancement services, communications, fundraising, and marketing professionals who work at educational institutions in the region that encompasses countries from New Zealand to the Middle East. Before joining CASE, Heather worked at several organizations in the private, non-profit and higher education sector across the world, most recently as the executive director of advancement and community relations at Brisbane Grammar School in the Australian state of Queensland. She is a passionate proponent of the integrated advancement model, which recognizes and relies upon the collective work of all advancement professionals to ensure education is valued, treasured and accessible.

Contact:

For media requests, please contact Heather or Kai Yi Ong, Head of Marketing & Communications for CASE Asia-Pacific. 

Jessica Elmore

Senior Director of Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Belonging Training

Areas of Expertise:

• • Advancement-focused diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging
• Alumni Relations
• Diverse higher education alumni relations and fundraising
  DEIB student and young alumni engagement
• Diverse constituent programming

Jessica Elmore (she/her) is the senior director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) training at CASE. Elmore is responsible for developing and tailoring DEIB training for the global organization and providing DEIB consulting services for member institutions and organizations.

Formerly, Elmore was an active CASE District VI cabinet member and co-chair of the Opportunity and Inclusion committee. She has a doctoral degree in educational leadership and a master’s degree in business administration from Kansas State University. She received her undergraduate degree from a historically Black university, Grambling State University.

Ben Fiore-Walker

Senior Director, CASE Opportunity and Inclusion Center 

Areas of Expertise:

• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging 

• Neuroscience

• Educational access

Ben Fiore-Walker is the senior director of Opportunity and Inclusion Center at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. CASE established the OIC in 2021 to enhance advancement professionals’ proficiencies in serving diverse communities. The OIC focuses on building advancement capacity, sustaining student access, and creating opportunities for minority, first-generation, and low-income students. 

Fiore-Walker has spent 25 years in the diversity space, managing diversity programs at the American Chemical Society, Teach for America, and the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Virginia, researching brain circuitry, epilepsy, and autism.

Ann E. Kaplan

Senior Director, VSE 

Areas of Expertise:

• U.S. Charitable Giving Data and Trends 

• U.S. Charitable Giving Standards and Guidelines 

Ann Kaplan is senior director of the Voluntary Support of Education (VSE) survey at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. In this role, she oversees the national online survey which includes survey administration, working with respondents of the survey, cleaning and analyzing the data, data validation, and more. Ann has been the director of the VSE since 2002 when it was administered by the Council for Aid to Education. She also helped develop Data Miner, the longitudinal and comparative metrics on-line reporting solution that is available to CASE members. 

Jenny Cooke Smith

Senior Director of CASE Insights Solutions

Areas of Expertise:

• Advancement-related Metrics and Trends

• Comparitive Benchmarking

• Data Analyzation

Jenny Cooke Smith is a senor strategic consultant for CASE, with a focus on CASE Insights, the global resource for educational advancement-related metrics, benchmarks and analytics. She specializes in analyzing advancement trends, interpreting comparison benchmarks, and helping people understand the “stories behind the data.”  

Prior to joining CASE, Jenny spent 15 years in a variety of positions within Blackbaud’s Target Analytics, most recently leading donorCentrics™ benchmarking cohorts, which provide opportunities for institutions and organizations globally to review and discuss direct marketing and annual giving trends.  

Ann Snyder

Director, Independent and International Schools 

Areas of Expertise:

• Independent School Marketing & Communications  

• Independent School External Affairs and Community Relations  

• Independent School Enrollment Management  

• Independent School Fundraising   

• International Recruitment and Marketing  

Ann Snyder joined CASE in 2020 to direct CASE’s efforts in the schools sector. Having served as Director of External Affairs and Enrollment at a day/boarding school with a significant international population, Ann is intimately aware of the unique challenges faced by schools globally.  

Ann directs and oversees all areas of independent and international school outreach and programming, with the goal of differentiating independent schools from their higher education counterparts and providing resources and training that can help schools exceed their goals in an increasingly complex landscape.  

Prior to CASE, Ann served as a senior leader at Stuart Hall School in Staunton, Virginia, overseeing marketing, communications, enrollment, community relations, and fundraising.