We’re extremely grateful for the generosity and expertise of our 2024 presenters, moderators and panelists. We have nearly 40 in all!
= Returning “Meeting of the Minds” Faculty Member!
= First-Time “Meeting of the Minds” Faculty Member!
Bob Burdenski
Bob Burdenski is an internationally-recognized annual and regular giving programs consultant for schools, colleges, and universities. He is a prolific writer and published author, often appearing in CURRENTS Magazine, the member magazine of the Council for the Advancement and the Support of Education (CASE). Bob is the author of three CASE books: Innovations in Annual Giving: Ten Departures That Worked, which presents ten U.S. case histories of advanced annual giving strategies; More Innovations in Annual Giving, Ten Global Departures That Worked, which features case histories from institutions around the world; and a new CASE book, Online Innovations in Annual and Regular Giving, Ten Dozen Departures That Worked. In 2013, Innovations in Annual Giving was published by Fudan University in Shanghai, becoming the first CASE book translated into Chinese.
Bob is a recipient of the CASE Crystal Apple Award for Lifetime Teaching Excellence as ranked by his audiences. He has educated (and entertained) at presentations throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, including numerous CASE Europe Annual and Regular Giving Conferences and Masterclasses. He presented CASE’s first-ever annual giving training programs in India, Japan, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Australia, and he is also a frequent contributor to CASE’s Online Speaker Series on the subject of annual and regular giving. In 2019, Bob was named a CASE Laureate for his volunteer service to the profession.
Since 2002, Bob has served as the moderator of FundList, the fundraising e-mail discussion listserv with nearly 4,000 development professional subscribers.
John Taylor
John Taylor is Principal of John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC. For nearly 5 years John served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Advancement Services, as well as Interim Campaign Manager during his last 18 months, at North Carolina State University. He holds a B.A. in Mass Communications and Socio-Political Change from Vanderbilt University, and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University. John has also served as Vice President for Research and Data Services at CASE – a position he held from its inception in late 2002. Prior to that he was the Director of Alumni & Development Records at Duke University for nearly 15 years.
John is the editor of the just-released 4th edition of the CASE book, Advancement Services Strategies: A Reference Guide for Advancement Professionals. He has spoken at hundreds of conferences across the country and received the CASE Crystal Apple Award for Outstanding Teaching. He is the Founder and Former President of the Association of Advancement Services Professionals. John received the AASP Jonathan Lindsey Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He resides in Durham, NC, with his wife and children.
Theresa Aide 🍏
Theresa Aide is Director of Non-Profit Campaigns with Suttle-Straus. She has more than 30 years of experience in non-profit communication services with Suttle-Straus Incorporated. Theresa enjoys the process of taking a project from concept through to completion using best practices for best results with omni-channel campaigns. She offers consultations and recommendations to all her faith-based clients to represent the extensive communication capabilities of Suttle-Straus including content solicitation writing, social media, individually designed die-cut brochures, and digital print and mail.
Chris Amherst 🍏
Chris Amherst is the Director of Data Management at the University of Chicago. A thought leader on data within higher education advancement and its power to drive insights and tell impactful stories, Chris has contributed to his respective fields through articles on Master Data Management, webinars on data culture, and a practice paper on the impact of technical debt on innovation and leadership within our teams. In 2023, Almabase recognized him as one of “50 under 50” in advancement. Currently directing a team handling data strategy, management, and governance, Chris is a member of DAMA and EDUCAUSE, has volunteered at CASE and aasp, and has presented at numerous conferences, locally and nationally.
Katherine Buggenhagen 🍏
Katherine Buggenhagen is Director of Gift Planning at Loyola University Chicago.
Colleen Carroll 🍏
Colleen Carroll is Community & Events Lead at Double the Donation. Colleen’s background is in nonprofit fundraising, mission-driven marketing, and community engagement. In her role at Double the Donation she facilitates educational opportunities for institutions of higher education, nonprofits, and K-12 schools to discuss workplace giving, an often overlooked fundraising channel.
Chad Carpenter 🍏
Chad Carpenter is the Vice President at Teuteberg Inc. and has 20 years of experience in direct marketing and data analysis. His expertise lies in developing strategies and campaigns that focus on new donor acquisition, as well as existing donor retention and growth.
Jessica Channell-Iler 🍏
Jessica Channell-Iler is the Assistant Vice Chancellor, Advancement Services for the University of Missouri- St. Louis (UMSL). Jess and her team transform lives by developing and providing advancement services solutions in support of UMSL’s philanthropic goals and priorities. With over 20 years of experience in higher education fundraising and philanthropy operations, Jess has served in various Advancement Services roles at several higher educational institutions. Arriving at UMSL in November of 2023, Jess previously served at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Wittenberg University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the University of Memphis. A self-proclaimed ‘funky tech’, Jess is passionate about the symbiosis between data and the philanthropic paradigm and helps to create frictionless pathways for data-driven decisions. Jess serves as the President of the Southwestern Advancement Research Organization (SWARO, an Apra chapter), as a member of the Apra board Chapters committee, and as a member of the Prospect Development Best Practices committee, the Membership Operations and Membership Engagement committees, and as the Chair for the Mentorship subcommittee for the Association for Advancement Services Professionals (AASP). She holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Memphis and an MS in Analytics from Wittenberg University.
Kate Cominsky CFRE 🍏
Kate Cominsky is a Non-Profit Campaigns Strategic Consultant with Suttle-Straus. Kate represents Suttle-Straus Inc. as Strategic Consultant for Non-Profit Fundraising with experience in higher education enrollment management, corporate sales and marketing management, and congressional constituent work. With Suttle-Straus Kate develops unique and creative communication plans for non-profit and faith-based donor solicitation, retention, and acquisition communications using an omni-channel marketing approach with hyper-personalized content. She has presented at national and international higher education and not for profit organizations conferences. In 2019 Kate published a memoir about caregiving for a parent with dementia: Breakfast Memories ~ A Dementia Love Story. The book received a Gold Seal “selected read” by Alzauthors.org.
Emily Etzkorn 🍎
After spending over a decade in the higher education fundraising space, Emily Etzkorn joined VanillaSoft as a Fundraising Evangelist, bringing with her a background in annual giving, engagement centers, and phonathons. In her role at VanillaSoft, Emily works closely with fundraising clients and promotes VanillaSoft within the fundraising world.
Jenn Freienmuth 🍏
Jenn Freienmuth is Assistant Director of Annual Giving at Lawrence University. Fundraising in higher education is her second career. Before accepting her position at Lawrence, she was a k-12 special education teacher in New Mexico, Washington, Arizona, and Wisconsin. In her current role, she oversees a dynamic student team focused on engaging donors through personalized outreach initiatives and impactful stewardship efforts. She loves facilitating connections between donors and students and empowering the next generation to embrace the power of philanthropy and drive positive change within her university’s community.
Victoria Gajc 🍏
Victoria Gajc is the Manager of the Individual Giving team at Northwestern Memorial Foundation, the philanthropic branch of Northwestern Medicine. In this role, Victoria oversees the strategy, development, and implementation of the annual giving program, leadership annual giving, and mid-level portfolios. Before joining Northwestern Medicine, Victoria was the Associate Director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University. In this role, she served as the Director of Development for the Institute at the SIU Foundation while also managing special projects; cultivating regional, national, and international strategic partnerships; and building public engagement with the Institute. Previously, Victoria also worked in development at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Victoria holds an M.S. in International Public Service and B.A.s in Islamic World Studies and International Studies from DePaul University.
Miyoko Grine-Fisher 🍏
Miyoko Grine-Fisher is Director of Annual Giving at Lawrence University.
Andrew Gutierrez 🍏
Andrew Gutierrez
Tim Hallinan 🍎
With 24 years of fundraising experience, Tim has spent 16 years as the Director of Annual Giving at his alma mater, Western Illinois University, in charge of direct response, digital, and Giving Day appeals. Prior to this role, he dedicated eight years to the non-profit sector, developing experience in major gift and event-based fundraising and donor engagement.
Joe Hallissey 🍏
Joe Hallissey is Senior Consultant, Digital with Zuri Group.
Alison Harper 🍏
Alison Harper is the Director of Annual Funds at Missouri State University. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Alison developed a passion for fundraising as a student caller for her Alma Mater, UMKC. Upon graduation, Alison managed phone campaigns for higher education institutions in Bloomsburg, PA, Kansas City, MO, and eventually in Springfield, MO. After 6 years of setting strategy, managing hundreds of college students, and exceeding goal after goal, Alison took a behind the scenes role for fundraising campaigns. As a Project Manager, she managed over 20 higher education clients’ multi-channel campaigns. In 2018 Alison accomplished a lifelong career goal and became the Director of Annual Funds at Missouri State University. Since then, she has overseen multi-channel outreach to all constituencies at MSU. Having established Missouri State’s giving day, re-imagined faculty/staff giving, rebranded crowdfunding, and so much more, Alison looks forward to a new digital engagement environment for FY25. In the few precious spare moments, Alison enjoys spending time with her family and knowing too much about houseplants.
Beth Hatcher 🍎
Beth Hatcher is the Principal and CEO of Beth Interactive, a digital philanthropy and communications agency in Chicago. She has 18 years’ experience working with higher education, secondary education, healthcare foundations and non-profits. A passionate storyteller, data nerd and accomplished presenter, Beth loves to bring best practices to her non-profit clients nationwide—with the goals of engaging donors and increasing giving through intelligent strategies, thoughtful implementation and full-service support. She received a 40 Under 40 Award from the Association of Healthcare Philanthropy in 2022.\
Rebecca Hibbard 🍏
Rebecca Hibbard is Director of Annual Giving at Ohio Northern University.
Meredith Howell
Meredith Howell is the Senior Director, Annual and Leadership Annual Giving at University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences. Meredith previously served as the Executive Director of Annual Giving at the University of Illinois Chicago. She has worked in development for over 20 years (starting as a student caller at Southern Methodist University). She fell in love with the strategy and data required to drive annual giving and campaign planning and has held roles in those areas serving on the campaign planning teams for the Ann & Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. After 19 years away, she recently returned to the University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences development team. Meredith holds a BA in English from Southern Methodist University and received a master’s degree in English with distinction from DePaul University.
Anne Ibach
Anne Ibach is the Senior Director of Membership at Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB). An experienced professional with a dedication to the mission of public media and a strong track record in building strategic data driven programs to grow member acquisition, retention, and revenue, Anne has extensive experience raising money to support non-profit media. Majority spent building strong membership programs to support the missions of public media organizations. With a strong dedication to effective investment in donor acquisition and a corresponding focus on retention, she has built a data savvy membership team who have driven the growth of the OPB member rolls from 105,000 to 159,000 in 10 years. She also leads the strategies to grow OPB’s Sustainer (recurring giving) program from 6,000 to nearly 100,000 in the same time frame. Program growth has more than doubled Membership revenue over the last ten years.
Megan Karwacki 🍎
Megan Karwacki is Senior Director, Annual Giving at Loyola University Chicago. She is also a proud Loyola alumna and is grateful to the generosity of donors who paved the way for the work she does today. Megan got her fundraising start as a Phonathon caller, had a foray into educational sales, and returned to her annual giving roots in 2013. When she’s not talking data segmentation and donor growth, Megan spends her time with her husband and children or with her head in any number of good books.
Alex Kwak 🍏
Alex Kwak, CFRE is System Director, Philanthropy Communications & Engagement with CommonSpirit Health Philanthropy. He has more than 20 years of experience in health care, higher education and human services development. In his current role, Alex oversees direct response, annual giving and communications strategy in support of 80 local foundations across CommonSpirit Health, the largest non-profit health system in the country. Previously, Alex served as the Marketing Director for the University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences Development office. He provided strategic direction for marketing efforts and digital strategy in support of fundraising goals, and oversaw the annual giving program for alumni, friends, leadership volunteers and grateful patients. Prior to this role, Alex served as Director of Development at the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, and before that as Senior Director of Annual Giving and Gifts & Records Management at Rush University Medical Center. Alex holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Vanderbilt University, a certificate in data analytics from the University of Chicago, and earned his CFRE in 2024
Kellie Basden Lawrie, Ed.D. 🍏
Dr. Kelly Lawrie is an accomplished leader in higher education advancement, currently serving as Assistant Vice President for University Advancement at Ohio Northern University. With a career spanning more than 16 years in higher education, Kelly has been instrumental at ONU in enhancing advancement services, stewardship initiatives, alumni relations, annual giving programs, and prospect research. Notably, Kelly managed Ohio Northern University’s largest and fastest comprehensive campaign, Forward Together, from inception to completion. The Forward Together Campaign raised over $112 million, secured 213 scholarships, engaged over 8,000 donors, and received 57,000 gifts, with 1,904 first-time donors contributing in less than three fiscal years.
Ramona Maza 🍎
Ramona Maza is Director of Annual Giving – Digital Philanthropy at University of Illinois at Chicago.
John McBride 🍏
John McBride is the Executive Director of Advancement Operations at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In his current role at SAIC, he oversees a team that does gift processing, prospect research, and management, as well as database maintenance and reporting. Experienced in driving philanthropic growth within academic and nonprofit sectors, John is a seasoned prospect management and development leader. With a track record of success at institutions such as Loyola University Chicago and the University of Chicago, John specializes in crafting strategic approaches to donor engagement and fundraising. His expertise includes pioneering proactive prospect identification programs, developing innovative tools for donor assessment, and leading teams to identify major gift prospects. Recognized with accolades such as the APRA International’s Professional of the Year award, John is committed to advancing philanthropic initiatives while fostering meaningful relationships. Outside of work, John enjoys spending quality time with their three children and engaging in volunteer activities.
Felicity Meu 🍎
Felicity spent 9 years with Stanford’s Office of Development. As Stanford’s inaugural Director of Next Generation Giving she worked closely with individual donors and volunteers but also helped craft the University’s vision for engaging its next great generation of philanthropists. Leaning into the needs of young donors, Felicity spent time consulting for Stanford’s Effective Philanthropy Lab, working on a project dedicated to taking a deep dive into better understanding the needs of millennial donors. Currently she serves as Director of Partner Success for GiveCampus where she continues to work against her goal of helping more people be more generous more strategically.
Adam Niermann 🍎
Adam Niermann is the Senior Director of Annual & Leadership Giving at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. During his sixteen years in annual giving at the University of Chicago, Adam has managed everything from the graduating senior class gift campaigns to trustee solicitations. He currently sits on the senior leadership team at Chicago Booth’s Office of Advancement and manages the direct appeals, class & reunion giving, and leadership giving teams at the business school—one of the University’s largest annual giving programs. Over the last campaign, he successfully led the business school’s charge to double the size of the annual fund to $12M and checked off “securing a $1M annual fund gift” from his bucket list.
Jeff Pacini 🍎
Jeff Pacini, Vice President of Philanthropic Partnerships, is responsible for leading the engagement and fundraising business for Legends. Legends’ philanthropy vertical delivers increased donors, dollars and engagement through the power of data science, analytics, and meticulously coordinated strategies. Legends serves a variety of industries, including higher education institutions (foundations, alumni associations, and athletic departments), national governing bodies, museums & attractions, private schools, and national mission-based nonprofit organizations. Jeff joined Legends from the American Heart Association (AHA) where he served as National Development Director for Cycling. In this role he started a national series of road and stationary cycling events to support the mission of reducing deaths worldwide due to heart disease and stroke. During his time, Jeff successfully launched events in more than 30 markets across the country that resulted in more than $10M to support the mission. Prior to the AHA Jeff was Vice President of Business Development for the nonprofit Greater Cleveland Sports Commission (GCSC). Jeff successfully recruited more than 30 national events, including the 2015 NCAA DI Men’s Basketball Regional, 2018 NCAA DI Wrestling Championships, 2019 MLB All-Star Game and more, resulting in $200+ million of economic activity across the region. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Jeff is a 2002 graduate of The College of Wooster and received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Sports Administration (MSA) from Ohio University in 2005.
Lindsey Pearsey 🍏
Lindsey Pearsey is the associate vice president of annual giving and market segmentation at the Indiana University Foundation, reaching out to over 770,000 alumni annually. Lindsey provides leadership for scaled, multi-channel donor fundraising campaigns using data insights which include alumni and donor interests, giving behaviors, and affinities. Indiana University Advancement recognizes giving under $25,000 as annual giving. Prior to joining the Indiana University Foundation, Lindsey served in a senior level role at Simon Property Group leading marketing analytics as well as consumer and business to business financial card service products. For 13 years before that, she was owner and president of a media buying agency focused on print marketing. Lindsey earned her bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in Journalism and English, as well as a graduate certificate in Business Analytics from the Kelley School of Business.
Kristine Petroshius 🍎
Kristine Petroshius P’27 is the Director of Advancement Services & Data Strategy for the Advancement Department of Lake Forest Academy. Kristine joined the Academy in 2010. She has served in various Advancement capacities, including Advancement Services Administrator and Annual Giving. Before LFA, she was the Fund Development Manager at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lake County for four years and a Policy Analyst at Combined Insurance Company (Aon) for five years. She is a native of Minnesota and holds a bachelor’s in early European history from the University of Minnesota. Kristine is a co-advisor and an assistant coach for girls’ swimming and supports various campus activities.
Sara Pond
Sara is the Vice President of Client Development at MCR, Inc. She is a philanthropic leader with a 20-year career serving educational and non-profit sectors with special focus on pipeline development. Her experience details leading teams, targeted marketing and communications, technical strategy, artful storytelling, and qualitative analysis to build the donor pipeline and raise revenue. She is passionate about helping organizations provide economic mobility, access to educational pathways and healthcare services.
Christina Pulawski 🍎
Christina is Associate Vice President, Management Consulting with Zuri Group, where she provides counsel, vision, and extra hands to the operational side of nonprofits. She previously served as AVP of External Affairs at the Art Institute of Chicago, and in leadership roles at Loyola University Chicago and Northwestern University. A native Chicagoan, Christina delights in teaching and empathetically creating structure and frameworks for good work. She is a co-founder and former officer of AASP, chaired and developed conferences and symposia for APRA, AASP and CASE, and received CASE’s Crystal Apple and APRA’s Distinguished Service awards. Christina delights in teaching and empathetically creating structure and frameworks for good work; her passions are critically examining organizational structure, and designing relationship management schemes and all the underlying systems that drive successful major and principal gifts activities and donor relations.
Melissa Mares Stambor
Melissa Mares Stambor currently serves as Vice President, Institutional Advancement Operations for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, the largest human services provider in the Midwest. Melissa has focused her nonprofit career on developing effective ways to communicate the profound impact of philanthropic gifts and translating engagement strategies into action at a variety of mission-driven organizations. In her current role, Melissa oversees donor relations, data management, corporate and foundation relations, special events, and gift processing. She previously served as Assistant Vice President for Advancement at Loyola University Chicago, the largest Jesuit university in the United States, where she built out the University’s donor relations program and managed special events. Before Loyola, Melissa spent 2 years w orking on Sidwell Friends School’s $56 million capital campaign. Melissa holds a BA in English and Psychology from the University of Michigan, and a MS in Journalism from the University of Illinois.
Liz Sullivan
Liz Sullivan is the Senior Executive Director of Annual Giving at Northwestern University. Liz directs and oversees the central annual giving program at Northwestern University, which supports 6 undergraduate schools and multiple other programs. Prior to Northwestern she had held roles in Annual Giving at the University of Chicago and led marketing and research programs at the American Bar Association. Her portfolio consists of the direct appeals, leadership giving, young alumni, and Reunion teams comprising of 30 staff members, and she oversees the University-wide loyalty and leadership giving societies. In addition, her role includes solicitation & stewardship of donors who give $99,999 and below, senior class gift & student philanthropy, leadership giving events, annual giving volunteers, crowdfunding, and online/digital giving. The annual giving program (which secures $28M annually) has had a 20% growth in donors and a 20% gain in dollars since FY17.
Matt Sulzer
Matt Sulzer is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for MCR, Inc. He offers his non-profit fundraising clients nearly 20 years of experience embedded in marketing and print strategies that yield results. Matt currently works with 150+ higher-education and 50+ healthcare clients. In his service to these organizations, he has earned the accolade of “Salesman of the Year” eight times for providing extraordinary leadership, customer service and helping them raise the fundraising bar.
Elizabeth Tavares
Elizabeth Tavares is the Senior Associate Director of Data Integrity and Gift Processing at Loyola University Chicago and is chair of aasp’s Best Practices – Advancement Management committee. Prior to joining Loyola in 2021, Elizabeth was Director of Advancement Services at North Park University and started her time in Advancement Services as Managing Director of Gift and Data Processing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is happy to be focused directly on Gift Processing again and enjoys translating the plethora of options major gift officers provide to donors into the straight and narrow world of IRS speak. Joining Loyola at the beginning of a CRM conversion and a campaign is the icing on her gluten-free cake.
Sara Tews 🍏
Sara Tews is Assistant Director – Annual & Special Giving at DePaul University. Sara began her fundraising career as a student caller at DePaul University. After graduation, she worked in several fundraising roles, including supporting the Shedd Aquarium and Lyric Opera with their membership drives, as a street fundraiser for Children International, and for five years with the American Red Cross, managing donor relations and corporate sponsorship benefits. In 2021, she returned to her alma mater as the Assistant Director of Annual & Special Giving, where she runs their direct mail program, plays a major role in Giving Day efforts, and is currently taking on additional responsibilities with DePaul’s digital fundraising initiatives. Outside of work in the summer, you will often find her at the beach with her golden retriever or enjoying a margarita at one of Chicago’s rooftop bars.
Heather Uzowulu 🍏
Heather Uzowulu is an Advancement Officer – Leadership Annual Giving at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. Heather has worked in fundraising, development, and relationship building for over ten years. She got her start in fundraising as a cashier at Whole Foods Market in Nashville, TN, where she was named the top fundraiser in the six-state South Region for the Whole Planet Foundation in 2013. Heather returned home to WI in 2014 and began her journey at the small nonprofit, Eras Senior Network, growing through a variety of roles from 2014 to 2023. Heather joined the Carroll University team in 2023. It has been an exciting opportunity for Heather to not only transition to Higher Education but also to delve into the world of Leadership Annual Giving. Come find Heather at MMOTM and chat about leadership annual giving, utilizing personalized videos to introduce yourself to donors, outreach cadences, gardening, or music!
Jon Van Oss
Mary Weingartner
Mary Weingartner is the Managing Director, Stewardship at UNICEF USA. Mary has worked in the field of stewardship and donor relations for over 16 years, beginning at the University of Illinois Foundation in 2006. Her love of donor relations has taken her to Loyola University Chicago, YMCA of the USA, and the University of Chicago, where she served as Director of Donor Relations. In 2022, Mary joined UNICEF USA as Managing Director of Stewardship. In this role she is charged with building a best-in-class stewardship program that brings donors closer to UNICEF’s transformative work. Mary is an active member of the Association of Donor Relations Professionals (ADRP). Currently she chairs the ADRP Education Committee and serves as an ex officio member of the Board of Directors.