We’re extremely grateful for the generosity and expertise of our 2025 presenters, moderators and panelists. We’ll 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.
Torey Calvert 🍎
Torey Calvert is the Director of Development Information Systems at the Archdiocese of Chicago.
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.
Clark Gafke 🍎
Clark Gafke is the CEO of LEAD Philanthropy. Clark enables nonprofit institutions to attract and motivate donors to achieve the organization’s strategic goals. He helps the organization’s senior leadership evaluate and design strategic fundraising plans in the context of contemporary giving trends. He also assists the organization’s development staff to implement the plan through the design and conduct of specific communication initiatives for Capital and Annual Fund programs. Clark’s experience enables him to provide guidance on using appropriate channels to reach prospects and donors in ways they want to communicate – face-to-face, special events, peer-to-peer texting, calling programs, direct mail efforts, email campaigns, crowdfunding & giving days, online technologies, digital communications, text-to-give, text-to-pledge and a host of other mobile channels. In his 30+ years providing fundraising counsel, Clark has served more than 300 organizations in the US and Canada representing education, healthcare, arts, museums, zoos, aquariums, public broadcasting and membership organizations. In the process, he’s trained and coached more than 11,000 communicators. Beyond this direct service to organizations, he is a frequent speaker at fundraising conferences including NCDC, CASE, AFP, PSI, GEAC, and on many college campuses. He is Past President of the Las Vegas AFP Chapter, a former national delegate, and Past Chair of the chapter’s Education Committee and Every Member Campaign. Clark is also Cialdini Certified Professional and Ethical Influence Practitioner with the Cialdini Institute. Clark began his fundraising work as a student caller in the alumni annual fund program at the University of Missouri. After graduation, he worked at the National 4-H Council in Washington, DC. Clark has served as Vice President and Senior Consultant for a variety of consulting firms. He created the first online caller training program for colleges and universities and served as Dean for 21 PHONE/MAIL 101 workshops. He is an avid supporter and volunteer for 4-H. Both Clark and his wife were named to the University of Missouri Extension Leaders Honor Roll for their long-term commitment and support. Clark resides near St. Louis, MO and enjoys fishing and traveling with his wife and their two daughters.
Paige Gustafson 🍏
Paige Gustafson is Senior Director of Advancement Services and Annual Campaigns at Albion College.
Andrew Gutierrez 🍎
Andrew Gutierrez is a Data Scientist, Philanthropy at the Cleveland Clinic. He works remotely from the Chicago area. Andrew has worked in the philanthropy space since 2018, having held roles such as Associate Director of Development Operations at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and as a Systems Analyst and later Data Scientist at Cleveland Clinic’s Philanthropy Institute. Much of his professional focus has been on using technology like SQL, Python, and Tableau to support organizations’ prospect development efforts through data analytics, with a particular focus on building statistical models for identifying and segmenting prospects, measuring capacity and affinity, and predicting donor behavior. Andrew graduated from the Ohio State University with a Bachelor’s in Arts Administration & Policy and is pursuing his Master’s in Data Science at Northwestern University. He relocated to Chicago from his native Cleveland in late 2023.
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.
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.
Heather Johnson 🍏
Heather Johnson is the Deputy Director, Donor Revenue Management & Policy, at UNICEF USA. Heather has worked in the field of advancement services and donor revenue management for 15 years. Prior to joining UNICEF USA, she was the Associate Director of Revenue Operations at Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry in Washington, DC. In her role at UNICEF USA, Heather leads a team of gift processors, manages revenue reconciliation, documents policies and procedures, and reviews all gift agreements. Heather is an active member of the Association of Advancement Services Professionals (aasp). She was previously a member of aasp’s DEI Data subcommittee and currently serves on the Membership Operations committee. Heather divides her time between Chicago and Washington DC, and loves exploring both cities’ museums and restaurants.
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.
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.
Rachel Spencer 🍎
Rachel Spencer is Senior Account Executive, Fundraising with VanillaSoft. Rachel is a true “phonathon” and Engagement Center expert, benefitting from nearly 15 years of tele-fundraising experience. She graduated from student caller, to telefundraiser-for-hire, to Engagement Center manager (and VanillaSoft client), and is currently salesperson-cum-consultant. In her role at VanillaSoft, Rachel works closely with more than 100 universities and her ability to imbue others with her unique brand of enthusiasm and joie-de-fundraising is truly unmatched.
Tracy Rush 🍏
Tracy Rush is the Executive Director, Advancement Strategies, Services, and Infrastructure at Otterbein University.
Elizabeth Tavares 🍎
Elizabeth Tavares serves as the Director Donor Revenue Management and Records at UNICEF USA. She has ten years of higher ed experience and loves documenting a donor’s wishes into a CRM and then watching the world change for the better. When she’s not talking in acronyms, she enjoys chasing after her four children, baking, and exploring Chicago’s great museums.