Michael Adzovic has been working in the field of annual giving since 1998, when he began a part-time job as a student caller at Northern Illinois University's Huskie Telefund. That led to a full-time career in advancement and annual giving beginning in 2002. Although Michael left NIU in 2006, he returned in 2016 as Director of the Northern Fund. Along the way, he has been able to build direct mail and digital programs from the ground up, execute successful phonathon campaigns, and launch successful leadership annual giving initiatives.

Shaun Grahe, director of student and young alumni engagement at Virginia Tech leads a team responsible for educating and engaging current students about the importance of staying connected to and supporting their alma mater while creating a seamless transition to become active, engaged young alumni.  Playing a critical role in the university priority of 22% alumni giving by 2022, Shaun designs strategic engagement opportunities to educate students and young alumni about the importance of philanthropy and connecting their passions with the mission of the institution. 

Beginning his career in Student Affairs, Shaun uses the experience he gained from Residential Life and Student Activities to design a vision for engagement and connect with students on their level.  While focusing on the current student experience, Shaun has designed and implemented a program model interwoven with the culture of service at Virginia Tech.  

Shaun has a BSBA in Marketing and MS in Organizational Development and Leadership from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.  As Maryland native, he enjoys time on the water with his wife and two daughters, seafood, and following Baltimore sports.

Elizabeth Keppel is the director of annual giving & digital strategy at Johns Hopkins University, where she oversees the institution's graduate and undergraduate giving strategies. Prior to joining the Hopkins team in April 2020, Elizabeth served in several roles at the University of Florida, most recently as the director of annual giving and strategic initiatives. In that role, she led a comprehensive, university-wide leadership annual giving program which also served as the organization's talent pipeline for major gift fundraisers.

At the outset of her fundraising career, she worked as an assistant director in the Office of Lifetime Philanthropic Engagement & Annual Giving at her alma mater, the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Elizabeth has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Education in Higher Education Administration from William & Mary.

Heather Kopec brings an entrepreneurial perspective to developing annual giving strategies, and integrating new technology to propel giving at Virginia Tech. Heather is responsible for developing an innovative one-to-many fundraising program aimed at increasing the alumni giving rate from 12% to 22% by 2022 while also sustainably growing current-use funds. Her strategies are deeply rooted in marketing analytics, behavioral segmentation, and encouraging a test-and-learn team environment.

In her career, Heather has worked for numerous universities at RNL, and then at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was the Director of Annual Giving. Heather worked to align campus partners and cross-functional teams to be at the forefront of best practices. 

Heather has a BA in Studio Art from Knox College and an MBA from the Wisconsin School of Business. She has also served on the Board of Trustees for her alma mater and Free Bikes 4 Kids. In her free time she can be found riding her bicycle, quilting, or traveling.

Astria L. Smith is the assistant vice president of annual giving and alumni relations at Southern Methodist University. She provides strategic leadership and direction for efforts that engage, solicit and steward SMU alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students and friends. Her role allows her to integrate several areas of passion and expertise, including front-line fundraising, annual giving stewardship, multi-channel direct marketing, volunteer management and alumni engagement.

Smith holds a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and master’s degrees from both Amberton University and SMU. She began her development career at Methodist Children’s Home in Waco, TX before joining SMU in 2007. As a compliment to her 18 years in the development field, Astria shares her fundraising knowledge by volunteering in the community and has served as a presenter for several networks including CASE and AGN. She also appreciates the opportunities she has to benchmark with colleagues through her participation in a variety of professional national consortiums, advisory councils and organizations.

Kyleigh discovered her passion for fundraising when she participated in her high school’s National Honor Society phonathon program. She then joined her university’s phonathon program and became a student worker in the Annual Giving department. In that role, she was able to see the intricacies of what goes in to running a successful program and has been in the field ever since. She has run phonathon and student engagement programs at Benedictine University and Northern Illinois University. She currently oversees Northern Illinois University's Huskie Engagement Center where she has the unique opportunity to expand the outreach of the program using various resources and technologies.