John began his career in philanthropy as a student foundation member at Kansas State University, serving within the K-State Proud Student Campaign. This experience jump-started his passion for providing access to education through philanthropy.

Following graduation, he began his tenure in KSU Foundation’s Annual Giving department, focused on direct mail, phonathon, student philanthropy, and student life fundraising. In April of 2014, he accepted a role at the Oklahoma State University Foundation focused on next generation philanthropy with an emphasis on engaging students, young alumni, and digital donors in all seasons of life through crowdfunding, days of giving, and peer-to-peer strategies. Following his time at Oklahoma State University Foundation, John led the University of Wisconsin-Madison's annual giving team from 2018-2022; launching their first day of giving, founding digital-first leadership annual giving program, and developing an analytics-centric fundraising program. John currently serves in an inaugural role at the Barack Obama Foundation overseeing the launch of an annual giving and direct response fundraising program.

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.

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.

Jake Strang is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Alumni Annual Giving at the University of Pittsburgh. In this role, he leads a central annual giving team that engages alumni constituents and secures sustainable funds for Pitt’s highest priorities. Jake is a resource and convener for annual giving staff at Pitt’s regional campuses and has primary responsibility for the operations and staff of Panthers Forward, a signature student debt relief program.

Prior to joining Pitt, Jake was the director of annual giving and alumni engagement at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. While there, he led a comprehensive annual giving program including reunions, volunteers, graduating class gift campaigns, and the school’s leadership society. In addition to annual giving responsibilities, he also was responsible for alumni marketing including newsletters, social media, alumni webinars, and the semi-annual Tepper Magazine. Jake also worked at Columbia University, where he was the senior associate director for annual fund programs. At Columbia, he served on the core team for the first five Columbia Giving Days and led the direct marketing for multiple annual funds across the university. Before joining Columbia University, he was a program center manager with Ruffalo Noel Levitz. While with RNL, he managed the on-site telefunds for Columbia University and the University of South Carolina.

Jake holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina in Marketing and Management and a master’s degree from Columbia University in non-profit management.