Leadership Committee
Summit Chair
Shaun B. Keister
Shaun B. Keister, a veteran fundraiser with experience in higher education, arts, and conservation philanthropy, became UC Davis' first vice chancellor for development and alumni relations in 2011.
He functions as the campus's chief fundraising officer and also serves as president of the UC Davis Foundation. He led UC Davis in successfully completing its first comprehensive fundraising campaign, "The Campaign for UC Davis," raising more than $1.1 billion from nearly 110,000 donors. Under his leadership, UC Davis became one of the top two percent of fundraising programs in the United States according to the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
Keister has served in a series of high-level development posts at Florida State, Iowa State, and Penn State universities. In his previous positions he has played a key role in the launch of three major campaigns.
He is a nationally-renowned fundraising expert having been quoted in local and national media outlets including "CNN Money," The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Currents magazine, The Sacramento Bee, and Fox 40 News. Additionally, he has nearly 20 years as an independent fundraising consultant serving clients including the San Francisco Opera, Steppenwolf Theatre, World Wildlife Fund, and the Nature Conservancy, and more than 60 public and private universities.
Keister has served as a CASE member and volunteer, speaking at more than 20 international conferences. He is the 2005 recipient of the CASE Crystal Apple Award for excellence in teaching.
He has a bachelor's degree in political science from Pennsylvania State University and master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from Iowa State University of Science and Technology.
Leadership Committee
Julie Allen
Diane Binney
Michelle Calvert
Justin Fincher
Rodney Grabowski
Cheryl Harrelson
Jackie Menendez
Heather Swain
Heather C. Swain is responsible for MSU's branding, marketing, creative and storytelling, digital and experience strategy, and analytics and insights functions. She has worked in higher education for more than two decades and in senior leadership positions for more than 15 years.
Swain oversaw development of the university's Spartans Will campaign, and under her leadership MSU's communications work has been recognized with numerous awards, including Tellys, Emmys and Addys, as well as top recognition from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Swain received the American Marketing Association Higher Education Marketer of the Year Award in 2016.
Prior to joining MSU in 2006 as assistant vice president for university relations, Swain spent six years as the senior communications officer at Ball State University where she led a major rebranding tied to the institution's strategic planning and governmental relations efforts. Swain also spent five years at Indiana University Bloomington in a variety of communications roles, culminating in the position of associate director for university-wide marketing in which she worked with IU campuses across the state.
Swain has served as co-chair of the American Marketing Association Symposium for Higher Education and a member of the CASE Commission on Communications and the Public Affairs Network (PAN) of the Association of American Universities. She currently co-chairs a new marketing interest group for PAN. She is a board member for Futurity, a multimedia consortium of more than 60 leading research universities from the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia, and The Conversation, an independent, nonprofit publisher of commentary and analysis authored by academics and edited by journalists for the general public.
Swain received her bachelor's degree in English from the College of William & Mary and completed the Educational Management Program at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. In spring 2022, she earned an expert digital marketer certification from the American Marketing Association/Digital Marketing Institute.