Juan García is the assistant vice president for advancement strategy and campaign director for the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, he served as chief strategy, analytics and campaigns officer with Texas Athletics, as associate vice president and campaign director at Wake Forest University, as vice president of operations and CIO at Arizona State University Foundation, and as assistant vice president for development services and analytics at the University of Texas at Austin. 

His experience includes campaign planning and goal setting, case statement development, fundraising project planning and management, and analytics modeling. He has also led the development of multiple business intelligence capabilities that include data sources from CRM systems, ticketing systems, donation systems, donor capacity ratings, demographic profiles, behavioral indicators and additional third-party data sources. In addition, he has implemented reporting, data mining and statistical modeling capabilities to assist with prospect identification, revenue projections, and process optimization.

Prior to joining development community, García spent 11 years as a management consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Arthur Andersen and BearingPoint. His project assignments focused on data-driven business analysis, and development of business plans for strategy and operations projects. His experience includes strategy formulation, merger integration, revenue growth enhancement, and operational improvement consulting projects.

García received a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

Christine Hoffman is the Vice President for Advancement, Campaigns and Administration in the Office of Advancement at Tulane University. In her role, she is charged with managing all key elements of the $1.3 billion, Only the Audacious, campaign. She is responsible for developing and executing an integrated strategic approach to fundraising for the annual giving, reunion giving, and corporate and foundation relations programs as well as providing executive oversight of information services, research, donor relations and stewardship, business analytics, budget, human resources, and facilities management. Christine has over 30 years of higher education fundraising and management experience and is now in her 18th year at Tulane.  

Jennifer MacCormack is the Senior Director of Annual Philanthropy and Advancement Analytics at the University of Washington. In her role, Jennifer is responsible for building strategies that lead to a robust base of philanthropic support and pipeline growth, bring data and analytical insights into fundraising and engagement decision making, and transform the way we build meaningful relationships with our constituents through digital pathways. Jennifer has worked more than 15 years in fundraising, prospect development and analytics. She served on the Board of Directors for APRA and has volunteered with CASE, AFP, and Annual Giving Directors Consortium. Prior to her career in Advancement, she worked for years in the Middle East as an archaeologist studying the growth of early urban centers and fulfilled a childhood dream to work at a museum during her tenure as a research associate at the Smithsonian.

Rebecca Kocher is the Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Engagement at Wittenberg University. In her role, Rebecca is responsible for leading the alumni engagement and fundraising efforts to help Wittenberg University successfully launch and complete its Having Light comprehensive campaign.  Rebecca has a passion for developing, implementing, and analyzing strategies to expand outreach with limited resources, as well as extensive experience in relationship-building and cross-divisional collaboration, all within a metrics-driven environment. With more than 16 years of experience in higher education fundraising, Rebecca understands and embraces the value of creating a metric-driven environment that includes high levels of accountability and a high-touch modeling method. Her advancement experience spans both public and private institutions in all phases of campaign execution, board management, operations development, and goal setting. Prior to Wittenberg University, Rebecca served in various advancement roles at Bowling Green State University, Albion College, and the University of Mary Washington. Prior to her career higher education, she worked for a private publishing company in Virginia focused on marketing and communications. 

Sandra Campero serves as the assistant vice chancellor for advancement operations for university advancement. She oversees the prospect development and donor relations units to support campus-wide fundraising efforts. In 2016, she received UCI's Staff Assembly Excellence in Leadership Award for her leadership of the IT, data management, donor relations and prospect development units. This distinction is awarded to individuals who inspire and engage their employees toward the goals of the organization, motivating contributions at the highest level.

Prior to joining UCI, she served as the senior director of research and prospect management at the Arizona State University Foundation (ASUF) where she led a new prospect management model to support the university's comprehensive fundraising priorities. In 2009, she was recognized with the 2009 Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Circle of Excellence Gold Award, for implementation of this model. Previously, she led the prospect research team at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in support of its $380 million campaign, and worked for 11 years in advancement supporting a $2 billion campaign at the USC Keck School of Medicine.

Campero serves as a trustee for the APRA Foundation, and faculty for CASE's Summer Institute in Advancement Services. Additionally, she served on the board of directors of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) and was the board liaison for the Ethics, Awards, and Governance Committees respectively. She is a past board member of the California Advancement Researchers Association (CARA) where she was chair of the Volunteer Committee and received the CARA Service Award, the highest honor bestowed by the organization. She is an active member of APRA, CARA and CASE and currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Education Advancement and Marketing. She is a member of the Association of Donor Relations Professionals (ADRP) and Association of Advancement Services Professionals (AASP).

Jay Davenport, CFRE, serves as vice president of Development and Alumni Relations for Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Health.

As VCU’s chief development and alumni officer, Jay leads fundraising and engagement efforts for the VCU enterprise, including the Monroe Park Campus, the health sciences campus and VCU Health. Areas under his purview include Advancement Solutions, alumni relations, annual giving, corporate and foundation relations, development and alumni communications, donor engagement, planned giving, presidential advancement, principal giving, regional philanthropy and the universitywide development staff.

Jay joined VCU and VCU Health in 2017 in the middle of a $750 million campaign and helped steer the campaign to a successful conclusion, raising over $840 million. In the past six years, Jay has helped VCU and VCU Health raise over $1 billion and is currently designing the first comprehensive campaign for the VCU and VCU Health.

Jay has previously led fundraising teams at Wake Forest University, including as assistant vice president of college development, assistant vice president of major gifts and associate vice president and campaign director. He has also served as director of development and team leader at Rice University and held fundraising positions as a college development director at the University of Memphis College of Business and Wright State University College of Engineering. He began his higher education career as an assistant dean of admissions at Wittenberg University.

Jay has served on the board of directors for Make-A-Wish of Greater Virginia and the Benedictine Schools of Richmond. Jay holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Xavier University and a master's degree in higher education administration from Ball State University.

Jennifer Howe joined the Georgia Institute for Technology as its Vice President for Development on August 15, 2022.  She is the first female to hold this role at Georgia Tech and succeeds Barrett Carson who led the Institute’s fundraising efforts for over 25 years.

Prior to arriving at The Flats, Howe served as the Vice President for University Advancement for the University of Dayton (UD), where she was responsible for managing the full range of fundraising programs and constituent engagement functions (alumni, parents, friends and donors); serving on the President’s Cabinet; and working with the University’s Board of Trustees on new trustee recruitment.  In her six years at UD, the University Advancement team achieved significant investment in terms of staffing, resources and infrastructure – and the results followed, significantly elevating the total new commitments received by the institution, including notable gains in principal and major gifts as well as the launch of new fundraising and engagement initiatives in student philanthropy, parents, peer-to-peer ambassadors, DEI/affinity-based groups, and digital/virtual lifelong learning.  In October 2018, UD’s Board of Trustees voted to approve its first comprehensive campaign in over 20 years under Howe’s direction; and the University will go launch the public phase of that effort later this spring.

Her professional history includes a 16-year tenure at Vanderbilt University, where she was part of a development and alumni relations leadership team that completed a $1.93B fundraising campaign in 2012.  In her role as an Associate Vice Chancellor, she established a stellar record in leadership and fundraising, including planning and implementing successful campaigns, cultivating and closing principal and major gifts, significantly increasing annual giving, and supporting athletics' capital needs.  Before Vanderbilt, Howe started her career in higher education career at Emory University, where she was the director of development, foundation and international relations for five years, as well as worked for their provost as a project manager during her initial year at the institution. 

Howe earned a Bachelor's degree with honors in English from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and has served on a number of leadership and conference committees for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).  A native of Georgia - she and her husband, Andrew, a retired insurance professional, were college sweethearts and have been married for over 30 years.  They currently share their homes in Atlanta, GA and West Falmouth, Massachusetts with their Welsh Corgi, Skylar.  

Charlie Melichar is a senior consultant in strategic communications at Marts & Lundy. For the past 15 years, he has been immersed in the field of nonprofit communications, serving as an adviser and thought leader for colleges and universities and the professional organizations that support them.

Most recently, Melichar served as associate vice chancellor of development and alumni relations communications at Vanderbilt University. His has served on the CASE Commission on Communications and Marketing, CASE District III Board of Directors and co-chaired the Task Force on Social Media. He is a past chair and current member of the Executive Committee for the Public Relations Society of America's Counselors to Higher Education section, which is focused on senior leaders in higher education public relations.

At Vanderbilt, Melichar took the lead in enhancing the university's communications in support of the completion of its successful $1.94 billion fundraising campaign. He merged the university and medical center development and alumni communications teams and redesigned project management processes to achieve a more strategic, data-oriented approach. He partnered with the public affairs office to develop a university-wide strategic communication planning process and design an integrated approach to communications across Vanderbilt's graduate and professional schools.

Prior to his work at Vanderbilt, he was vice president for public relations and communications at Colgate University from 2005 to 2010. During that time he led the communications efforts for a $400 million fundraising campaign. He came to Colgate in 2003 as director of media relations. He previously worked in a similar position at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, before being named director of news and information.

In his early career, Melichar worked for PR Newswire, a news service distribution company, and ProfNet, a subsidiary service that links academic experts to journalists.

Specializing in creative strategy and communications, JoAnn focuses on helping clients understand their most important audiences and how to engage with them successfully. She brings more than 25 years of experience as an expert in marketing for such diverse industries as commercial banking, sports marketing, and higher education. JoAnn has written for industry and institutional publications alike and has presented at conferences for the Public Relations Society of America, CASE, and the American Marketing Association.

She holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, graduated from Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College), and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She volunteers her time for initiatives focused on animal welfare and community health and wellness.

Michael has more than 22 years of experience in higher education development and has been a key leader in advancing the philanthropic mission and culture of the University of Denver since his arrival in 2017. In his current role, Michael oversees and supports the centrally-based development teams inclusive of Foundation Relations, Gift Planning, Regional Fundraising, and Annual Giving and LAG (Leadership Annual Giving). 

Before joining DU, Michael held positions in fundraising at Syracuse University, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University centrally and in the College of Engineering, and at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to his work in academia, Michael held various roles in industry.

Michael has a M.S.Ed. and a B.S. from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He has served on the board of the Engineering Development Forum (EDF). Additionally, he was one of the founding members and a former Co-President of the Network of Academic Corporate Relations Officers (NACRO).