Pamela Say, BA, MBA, CFRE is a sought-after, nationally-published author, speaker, higher education administrator, and small business owner. She was the youngest appointee to the President’s Executive team at Trocaire College in 2014 and serves today as the VP for Institutional Advancement at D'Youville College. Her award winning work in fundraising, marketing, and leading high performance teams commands international attention. Say was featured recently in Advancing Philanthropy Magazine (a global publication of the Association of Fundraising Professionals) in a column on discovering your personal best leadership.

In an interview with the Chronicle of Philanthropy, she contributed to a special insert entitled Fixing the College Fundraising Crunch, and her book Five Strategies to Increase Annual Fund Revenue was highlighted in the national Wiley Journal Fundraising Success. Say has raised millions of dollars for non-profit missions. She has inspired staff to smash through marketing metrics and coached best-in-class teams.

Tori currently supports the University of West Florida's mission by securing major gifts through personal contact with alumni in all geographic areas. She takes an interest in all aspects of education and is dedicated to promoting the university's strategic priorities through developing excellent relationships with faculty, senior academic leaders, trustees, alumni, and friends of the university.

Previously, she was involved in college athletics specifically focusing on fundraising and development for the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of West Florida. She helped manage the official booster club of UWF Athletics, the Argonaut Athletic Club.

Ted Blackburn is a Managing Director with CCS Fundraising. With more than fifteen years of experience at CCS, Ted has planned, directed, and supervised campaigns for healthcare, educational, religious, social service, and cultural organizations for clients throughout the country. He has conducted and supervised major capital and comprehensive campaigns, feasibility and planning studies, development assessments, major gift initiatives and solicitations, and sustainable annual giving programs.

Ted has provided interim leadership for major institutions with as many as fifty development staff and has been directly responsible for managing all aspects of fundraising operations, stewardship protocols, campaign initiatives, and donor relations. He is a leader in CCS’s healthcare practice group and a long-time faculty member and facilitator for CCS Learning, the firm’s training institute. Ted has provided strategic advice and counsel to a variety of organizations.

Mauria leads the team that has designed Advancement Resources’ curriculum of more than 80 impactful workshops for academic institutions, medical organizations, and other non-profit groups. Mauria has delivered hundreds of workshops for development professionals, communications professionals, support associates, and academic leaders. She has extensive experience with highly successful campaign launches and closings, as well as strategic development communications.

With over 20 years of experience in communications and instructional design, Mauria has developed numerous programs for organizations across the nation. She has applied her background in education, theater, dance, and writing to create and produce compelling, story-driven events, videos, and workshops.

Lisa Pollard Carlson is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Development and Alumni Relations at University of California, Merced. She joined the University in 2016, first serving as the Executive Director of Development Services before assuming her current role. Lisa’s philanthropy and alumni relations experiences include campaign management, communications, alumni engagement, and donor stewardship.

Linnie S. Carter is the vice president of college advancement at HACC, Central Pennsylvania's Community College, and executive director of the HACC Foundation. She joined the HACC team in March 2012. Linnie serves all five of HACC's campuses. She oversees the HACC Foundation and advertising, alumni affairs, branding, fundraising, grants, graphic design, marketing, photography, public relations, publications, scholarships, special events, sponsorships, videography and website development.

Linnie's previous appointments include vice president of institutional advancement at Halifax Community College in Weldon, N.C.; vice president of college advancement at Lord Fairfax Community College in Virginia and director of institutional advancement at John Tyler Community College, also in Virginia. She served as executive director of the foundations at each of these institutions. In addition, Linnie was an assistant professor of public relations at North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, N.C. and adjunct faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Richmond. She previously was public relations manager and community affairs coordinator of the Richmond (Va.) Metropolitan Authority.

Linnie earned a Ph.D. in community college leadership from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. She earned a master's degree in mass communications (media management) and a bachelor's degree in mass communications (public relations), both from VCU. She earned the prestigious Accredited in Public Relations (APR) designation from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

Her many professional and community memberships include the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., National Council for Marketing and Public Relations and PRSA. Linnie is the recipient of numerous awards and honors and is involved in several College and community service organizations. She has been happily married to her husband for more than 23 years and is the proud aunt of many nieces and nephews, a loving godmother to seven and a committed mentor to many.

Roslyn P. Clarke is the director of prospect research services on the BWF Insight team. She manages all outsourced research projects, leads a team of researchers, conducts trainings, and provides prospect research counsel. Before joining BWF Insight, Roslyn served as director of prospect research at Morehouse College and assistant director at Harvard University. Prior to Harvard, Roslyn worked at Brown University and Hebrew SeniorLife. Roslyn is a seasoned conference speaker, frequent conference faculty member, and has conducted countless prospect research bootcamps. Over the years, she has presented for Apra, CASE, NEDRA, and AFP.

Kaitlin Colleary is a career fundraiser with nearly a decade of development experience. Since 2016, she has worked as an advancement officer for the UW College of Engineering. She first joined the college as a discovery officer, before moving into her current role of major gift officer in 2017. Today, Kaitlin leads advancement efforts for three academic units in the college, partnering closely with UW leadership, volunteers and alumni to strategically develop and execute fundraising efforts.

Kaitlin grew up in New England and prior to joining the UW, she launched her career in Boston, where she spent five years working in non-profit fundraising, first for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and then for City Year. Her previous roles spanned annual giving, event-based fundraising, board management, peer-to-peer fundraising programs, and junior major gifts. Kaitlin continues her work with City Year in a volunteer capacity in Seattle, where she serves as Chair of the Associate Board. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Strategic Communications from Elon University, and is proud to credit her start in fundraising to her experience as a student caller in the Elon phone-a-thon office.

Prior to joining Wiley in December 2017, Dr. Felton served as the president of Wilberforce University, the nation’s oldest private HBCU and UNCF-member institution, since July 2016. During his tenure, he successfully secured $3.8 million in programmatic grants to strengthen the institution’s master’s degree program; increased career placement through advisement; and created an intramural complex with a $50,000 grant secured from the Home Depot Retool Your School Campus Improvement Program.  As a result of Dr. Felton’s engagement efforts, alumni support grew significantly, with $458,000 in gifts being garnered at the 2017 Wilberforce University National Alumni Association Conference.  Dr. Felton also secured $350,000 to create the Dr. Mark and Shelly Wilson Center for Entrepreneurship, Social Good and Transformational Leadership.

Before his appointment to Wilberforce University, Dr. Felton served as senior vice president, chief operating officer and vice president of institutional advancement for Livingstone College in Salisbury, NC. He also was the director of development while serving as a lecturer in the Government, Law, and International Affairs Department at Murray State University in Murray, KY.

Dr. Felton earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from UNCF-member institution Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, FL, and earned his J.D. from the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida.

He is co-founder of the Higher Education Leadership Foundation (H.E.L.F.), an organization ensuring that a pipeline of transformational, highly skilled and principled leaders are identified and cultivated to meet the needs, challenges and opportunities facing the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Dr. Felton served in the United States Marine Corps for eight years.

Earl Granger, III, has been a higher education practitioner for close to thirty years. He recently took the helm at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation as the chief development officer/vice president in Williamsburg, VA. Colonial Williamsburg has the distinction of being the largest living museum in the country.

Prior to his role at Colonial Williamsburg, Earl served as the associate vice president for development at William & Mary where they successfully completed a $1B For the Bold fundraising campaign which ended in June. Additionally, Earl also served in senior enrollment roles at William & Mary, Tufts University and UNC’s Kenan Flagler Business School.

As part of his advancement related work, Earl has worked to engage and secure private support from populations that have been historically under-represented. Earl is a recipient of the 2018 CASE District III Opportunity and Inclusion Award.

He received his B.A. degree in public policy and M.Ed. in higher education administration from William & Mary.

Elizabeth Gray is the first stewardship coordinator at the University of West Florida. With a degree in journalism, her expertise in writing and detail comes in hand when stewarding donors and courting scholarship recipients.

Dr. Anthony Heaven is higher education scholar-practitioner who specializes in advancement and diversity/inclusion work. He currently serves as the Associate Director of Development for the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College (SMBHC) at The University of Mississippi.  In addition, he assists with strategizing on diverse donor engagement strategies and is leading an effort to provide a healing and reconciliatory space for African American alums who graduated during the 60s, 70s, & 80s. Previously, Heaven served as the Associate Director of Donor Engagement at The University of Florida. He also done diversity/inclusion and student services work at The University of Texas at Austin.

Heaven completed a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Bachelor of Arts in Religion/Theology at Stillman College. At The University of Texas at Austin, he attained a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership with a concentration in Public Affairs. His dissertation focused on the experiences of African American frontline fundraisers at predominately White institutions. Heaven was a recipient of the Dissertation of the Year Award presented by The American Association of Blacks in Higher Education.

Tracy B. Ketchem is currently the Director of Campaign Operations at the University of Minnesota Foundation where she is responsible for the coordination and implementation of the University’s $4 billion campaign. Prior to this role, Tracy was the Director of Development, Neurosciences.

Before joining the University of Foundation, Tracy served as Executive Consultant for the Cleveland Clinic and the Executive Director of Development for The Children’s Hospital at the Cleveland Clinic. Tracy created and managed a unified fundraising program for the division of pediatrics and The Children’s Hospital. She led the Hospital’s $50 million initiative and established a volunteer leadership board.

Before joining the Cleveland Clinic, Tracy served as the Associate Director of Development for The Cleveland Orchestra where she managed three annual fund campaigns, campaign volunteers, donor stewardship, prospect management, and donor record keeping. Also in Cleveland, Tracy served as Director of Leadership Programs for the School of Engineering at Case Western Reserve University where she served as a major gifts officer and created and managed the School’s stewardship program.

Upon earning her Masters of Public Affairs with a concentration in Nonprofit Administration from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affair, Tracy began her career at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as their Donor Relations Associate. In her five years with the Orchestra, she also served as Individual Gifts Manager, Annual Fund Manager, and Director of Individual Giving and Development Operations.

Tracy is currently serving as adjunct faculty at The Fund Raising School through the Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana University where she teaches the principles and techniques, major gifts, and capital campaign courses.

Milagro "Misa" Lobato is the director of prospect management and analytics at the Rhode Island School of Design. Previously, she served as the assistant vice president of advancement strategy and annual giving at the University of Colorado. She is president-elect of Apra, an international association serving professionals who drive their institutions' philanthropic missions through work in prospect development, prospect research, data analytics, data management, and relationship management. She is past president of CPRA, Apra's Colorado chapter. She also chaired Prospect Development 2015, Apra’s international conference. Misa holds a B.A. in English literature and ethnic studies from University of Colorado Boulder.

Jessie Muhm is passionate about connecting donors with initiatives that promote social good. Today, she is Director of Advancement for the College of Engineering, UW.  In this role, she leads the Campaign for Students, focusing on fundraising for an interdisciplinary engineering building, programs that promote access for students of diverse backgrounds as well as student leadership programs. Jessie manages a team of junior gift officers who are discovering donor prospects, providing support to each officer as they cultivate, solicit and steward individual donors.  

Prior to serving as Director, Jessie was a major gift officer and before that served as a discovery officer with the College of Engineering.  In these roles, Jessie raised philanthropic gifts in support of specific engineering departments. Previously, she was the Leadership Gift Officer for City Year Seattle/King County.  Her fundraising career began nearly 15 years ago in Washington DC where she raised funds for American Rivers, a national conservation organization.

Jessie graduated from Pacific Lutheran University with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Seattle University.  In her spare time, Jessie can be found exploring nature's most beautiful destinations with her husband and their beloved dog, Indie.

John J. "Ski" Sygielski, Ed.D, became the seventh president of HACC, Central Pennsylvania's Community College, in July 2011. His previous appointments include president of Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon, and president of Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown, Virginia. He began his professional career as a teacher in a Chicago inner-city school followed by a stint as a corporate trainer for two Fortune 500 companies. He transitioned to a community college career at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, where he began his community college administration and college teaching career. 

Ski is the vice chairman of the board of directors for the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges. He is the past chairman of the board for the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and AACC's 21st-Century Commission on the Future of Community Colleges. He is currently a member of Harrisburg Rotary and serves on the boards of the Harrisburg Chamber of Commerce and Pennsylvania's Workforce Investment Board. 

He earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy, two master's degrees in business and a doctorate in education, as well as an honorary associate degree. 

Ski, and his husband, Steve Perrault, are residents of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, he is an avid bicyclist and the only member of his working-class family to graduate from college.

Cynthia Weingard serves as the Executive Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at Samuel Merritt University. She brings nearly 30 years of experience securing funding for nonprofits dedicated to youth development, hunger, and access to higher education. Previously, Cindy served as the executive director of corporate, foundation and government relations. Prior to Dominican, Cynthia was development director at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the North Bay, Sterne School, and Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. Her experience includes: donor relations/stewardship, grants management, collaboration building, budget development, major gifts/special event fundraising, strategic planning, and team oversight. 

In her position at Dominican, Cynthia and her team set and implement the strategy for securing gift and grant commitments from corporations, foundations, and government agencies to support the annual operating, scholarship endowment, and capital needs of the University. Additionally, she speaks to groups on and off campus, volunteers for local nonprofits, and served as a consultant for an NGO in Buenos Aires, Argentina.