Natalee Ellars is the senior executive director, alumni engagement at UC San Diego. She leads the Alumni Engagement team which includes university-wide alumni engagement, volunteer leadership, regional engagement, student engagement, alumni relations, alumni marketing and digital outreach. 

Natalee’s prior advancement experience includes more than 10 years at UCLA Alumni in leadership roles as Senior Director, Events and Business Development; Senior Director Marketing and Membership; and Executive Director. She has been recognized for her management of numerous UCLA Alumni Days, including the most recent Centennial celebration; serving on the taskforce for the UCLA External Affairs CRM system; establishing the UCLAONE online alumni portal; as well as leading the marketing and membership teams through their transition to an “all-in” engagement model.

Passion for data and reporting is a legacy of Natalee’s first career, a decade in financial services. That passion is equally matched with her genuine care for people and building community. Natalee has a strong foundation in marketing and communications and is best known for her ability to lead through challenges with creativity and a positive attitude.

Natalee is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College with a B.A. in History and Organizational Psychology. She and her family are avid travelers and supporters of the arts.

Jenny Cooke Smith es consultora estratégica Senor para CASE, con un enfoque en AMAtlassm, el recurso global para métricas, evaluaciones comparativas y análisis relacionados con Advancement.

Jenny se especializa en analizar tendencias de Advancement, interpretar puntos de referencia comparativos y ayudar a las personas a comprender las "historias detrás de los datos". En esta función, es responsable de desarrollar y liderar grupos de cohorte facilitados para ayudar a los miembros a comprender mejor los resultados de avance por área de práctica, informando así el liderazgo intelectual y las mejores prácticas.

Antes de unirse a CASE, Jenny pasó 15 años en una variedad de posiciones dentro de Target Analytics de Blackbaud, más recientemente liderando cohortes de evaluación comparativa de donorCentrics ™, que brindan oportunidades para que las instituciones y organizaciones a nivel mundial revisen y discutan el marketing directo y las tendencias de donaciones anuales. Durante su tiempo en este cargo, creó y amplió los grupos de cohorte de educación superior, estimuló el desarrollo para analizar el impacto de iniciativas más nuevas dentro de la recaudación de fondos, como los días de donaciones, el crowdfunding y el análisis de donaciones de nivel medio, y se asoció con oficinas en Canadá, el Reino Unido y Australia para ofrecer resultados específicos para las ONG en esos mercados de recaudación de fondos. Jenny también ha sido voluntaria de CASE y oradora frecuente en conferencias de CASE.

Duane Wiles has been an advancement professional for more than 22 years. Wiles joined the UT Knoxville Office of Advancement as the associate vice chancellor of alumni affairs in February of 2020. He has served as a senior alumni relations professional for the University of Nebraska, University of Florida, and chief alumni officer at Florida International University.

He is an active board member of the Council of Alumni Association Executives (CAAE), and the organizations led by Wiles have received more than 10 Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) awards of excellence. Wiles is the recipient of Legacy Magazine Miami’s South Florida’s 50 most powerful and influential black professionals, and the Robert G. Forman Fellowship for high-potential chief alumni officers.

Proven in leading and motivating volunteer leaders, building programs, developing strategic plans, generating new revenue opportunities, and forging new partnerships. He leads the alumni engagement team, which is committed to advancing UT Knoxville and enriching the lives of students and alumni worldwide.

As a former football player for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Duane understands what it means to work hard, persevere, and chart the course. Duane and his wife of 22 years, Bobbie, live in Hardin Valley. Duane is the proud dad of four kids, two of which are current UT Knoxville students.

Carol Bassie is an advancement professional with 13 years of experience in the field. Currently, she is Director of Alumni and Parent Communities at Drew University where, in the past four years, she has completely transformed the alumni relations function from an events-based focus to one that meets alumni where they want to be met in meaningful ways. That transformation has included, among many other developments, the formation of several professional and identity based affinity networks that are supported with active volunteer leadership.

Christian Chavez serves as Associate Director, Alumni Career Engagement for UCLA Alumni Affairs. In his role, Christian leads initiatives that support career development for UCLA alumni and current students. In addition to managing his portfolio of programs and resources offered by the UCLA Alumni Association, he works with multiple campus partners at UCLA to bring professional development opportunities to diverse UCLA communities on and off campus.

Before joining UCLA Alumni Affairs in 2016, Christian served as a student affairs coordinator for the UCLA Division of Undergraduate Education. In this role, he counseled a diverse population of UCLA and visiting students on academic courses and experiential learning programs offered during the summer.

Christian is a Southern California native and graduated from UCLA in 2013 with a B.S. in Psychobiology.

Cathy Choi serves on the Board of the UCLA Alumni Association Board of Directors, and is a Co-Chair of the Career Advisory Committee on the Board. She is the senior director of programs at The Eisner Foundation, overseeing the planning, strategic development and distribution of $7 million in annual grants. Cathy has more than 20 years of diverse professional experience in philanthropy and the nonprofit and public sectors. Cathy received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from UCLA and Master’s in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Jay is a redhead, father of a redhead, social scientist, and executive director of alumni relations for UC Berkeley. His research is focused on "Alumni Identity" - a new approach to measuring engagement and predicting philanthropy through the lens of social psychology and data science. He was previously director of alumni engagement at USF and executive director of alumni strategic initiatives at UCLA. Jay is dedicated to improving advancement in order to bring social justice and equity to education. He holds a doctorate in organization and leadership from USF and a master’s and bachelor’s degree in music from UCLA.

Adam is an experienced director of Analytics with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in SQL Server, Visual Studio, Raiser's Edge, PowerBI, Access, and Excel. He is a strong research professional with a software engineering degree from Franklin College.

Before joining the Advancement team in 2019, I oversaw the conversion and implementation of Raiser's Edge NXT in my role as senior systems analyst on the IT team at Franklin College, where I have worked since 2009. After a successful go-live, I was recruited to join the Advancement team to lead the day-to-day operations within Raiser's Edge NXT.

Gary has a BA from the University of Chicago and a JD from Illinois Tech's Chicago-Kent College of Law. He currently serves as Senior VP for Development for Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech). Founded at the dawn of the Space Race in 1958, Florida Tech is the only independent, technological university in the Southeast. In this role, he oversees all fundraising and leadership engagement for the University.

Gary began his career at the University of Chicago in 1987 and served 16 years there in annual giving, major giving and as Associate Dean for the graduate school of social work (SSA) and Director of Major Gifts for the University of Chicago Medical Center. Following this he served over 15 years as Director of Major Gifts for the National Alzheimer's Association, Vice President for the University of North Texas Health Science Center, and Vice President for Washington College and the University of Tampa.

Gary has authored several books on the use of the internet in nonprofits and fundraising. He currently serves on the board of Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in London.

James Hurley is a Senior Director with NYU's Advancement division (UDAR). He manages domestic and global alumni events (more than 700 each year) and programs (e.g., regional alumni clubs, affinity/special interest groups, and signature events, and presidential/trustee events) for NYU's 500,000 living alumni around the world supporting NYU's global network.

Prior to joining NYU, James was a consultant at EAB. In this capacity he managed and conducted research related to fundraising in higher education. James was the first recipient of the US-UK Fulbright Program's joint award with the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Queen’s University of Belfast.

James studied at Oxford University, the Queen's University of Belfast, and Iona College. He holds degrees in political science, history, and legislative affairs and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Art in London. 

As the Associate Senior Vice President, Alumni Relations at the University of Southern California, Erika Jordan serves as the chief alumni engagement officer for the campus and plays a key role in providing leadership and strategic guidance to ensure uninterrupted engagement for the nearly 500,000 alumni in the Trojan Family. 

Prior to this role, Erika served as the Vice President, Alumni Engagement at Boston University where she led the Alumni Engagement, Annual Giving, and the Development Events & Communications teams. Additionally, she spent six years serving as Assistant Vice Chancellor, Alumni & Constituent Engagement at UC Irvine. Throughout her career she has been instrumental in exponentially growing alumni engagement and annual fundraising, elevating communications and events, establishing UCI’s dual alumni engagement campaign goal and leading special projects.

Erika has spent her career in politics, special events, alumni relations, frontline fundraising, and served as the Director, Alumni Relations and Annual Giving for the USC Marshall School of Business. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Howard University and executive masters in leadership from USC.

Lee Ann has demonstrated success in annual giving (personal visits/portfolio management, direct mail, phonathon, e-philanthropy, database segmentation and related marketing and outreach efforts) and alumni engagement (working with alumni boards, special events, alumni parents and current student engagement). She has a proven track record building teams and relationships for efficient and effective programming with an eye toward fun along with  a special interest in gender equity and social justice.

Gloria Ko serves as the senior director for Alumni Career Engagement leading career initiatives for alumni and students. She and her team aim to engage all alumni in meaningful ways to further the UCLA network in the workplace. She currently oversees programs, such as the Alumni Mentor Program, UCLA ONE and other career and professional development programming for alumni and students. Her prior experience at UCLA Alumni Affairs includes leading Young Alumni Engagement and advising the Student Alumni Association.

Gloria previously on the board of directors for the CASE District VII Cabinet for six years. She is also an active member of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, and has served on faculties for the Young Alumni and Student Engagement Institute. Gloria graduated from UCLA in 2006 with a bachelors in communication studies and in 2007 with a M.Ed. in counseling in student affairs.

Evangeline Politis is a communications professional with experience in email marketing, social media, public relations, and crisis communication. She is currently an associate director of digital communications within Alumni Relations and Development at Northwestern University.

A Chicago native, she received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and her master’s in new arts journalism from the School of Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). After her graduate work, Evangeline continued her time at SAIC as she worked in the marketing and communication department. Prior to her role at Northwestern, she spent four years at Loyola University Chicago where she served as the point person for crisis communications, managed media relations, and oversaw internal communications for the university’s faculty, staff, and students.

Tristan Riddell is an Associate Director of Digital on the Marketing and Communications team of Northwestern University's Alumni Relations and Development. He's been with Northwestern for seven years and is their head of video production. Tristan has been in the video industry for 18 years and has worked in film, television, commercials, news, sports, and of course, education.

Timothy Worzick is Florida Tech's Donor Engagement Coordinator in the Office of Development. He has an MBA from Saint Leo University. Together with Gary Grant, he manages volunteerism programs for alumni, parents, and friends. In addition, he oversees donor stewardship and event mass emails. You can often catch him pairing students with interviewers in his favorite mapping tool.