Faculty
Meet Your Co-Chairs
Shaun B. Keister
Shaun B. Keister, a veteran fundraiser with experience in higher education, arts, and conservation philanthropy, became UC Davis' first vice chancellor for development and alumni relations in 2011.
He functions as the campus's chief fundraising officer and also serves as president of the UC Davis Foundation. He led UC Davis in successfully completing its first comprehensive fundraising campaign, "The Campaign for UC Davis," raising more than $1.1 billion from nearly 110,000 donors. Under his leadership, UC Davis became one of the top two percent of fundraising programs in the United States according to the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
Keister has served in a series of high-level development posts at Florida State, Iowa State, and Penn State universities. In his previous positions he has played a key role in the launch of three major campaigns.
He is a nationally-renowned fundraising expert having been quoted in local and national media outlets including "CNN Money," The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Currents magazine, The Sacramento Bee, and Fox 40 News. Additionally, he has nearly 20 years as an independent fundraising consultant serving clients including the San Francisco Opera, Steppenwolf Theatre, World Wildlife Fund, and the Nature Conservancy, and more than 60 public and private universities.
Keister has served as a CASE member and volunteer, speaking at more than 20 international conferences. He is the 2005 recipient of the CASE Crystal Apple Award for excellence in teaching.
He has a bachelor's degree in political science from Pennsylvania State University and master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from Iowa State University of Science and Technology.
Dale Wright
Dale Wright serves as associate vice chancellor for advancement at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (UIUC). In this role, besides managing a small portfolio of donors and prospects, he provides vision, strategic leadership, mentoring, and coaching to a portfolio of chief advancement officers and deans and academic and university leaders.
Prior to this position, he served at UIUC as the associate dean & chief advancement officer for The Grainger College of Engineering with responsibility for the strategy and operations in fundraising and constituent engagement. As campaign director for the college’s $550M goal, as part of the "With Illinois" $2.65B campaign (original goal of $2.25B), he led the college in exceeding the goal by 21%. Additionally, the college secured 25% of the overall campaign total.
Over the last 20+ years, Wright has held a variety of alumni and fundraising engagement roles in higher education. He has guided several deans, academic leaders and university leadership through the campaign planning process and execution, over three $1B+ comprehensive campaigns. He is an experienced principal and major gift fundraiser, mentor, and leader, designing engagement programs to help teams and volunteers meet philanthropic goals.
Wright is an active CASE volunteer, having served on district and national committees, and presently as a faculty member/speaker at CASE conferences and other CASE educational programs. Wright also holds membership in organizations such as the African American Development Officers Network, the Association of Fundraising Professionals and is involved in other non-profit work, including serving on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the American Legion Boys State of Missouri (Missouri Boys State). He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Missouri (Mizzou).
Faculty
Heather Colwell
Heather Colwell is an Executive Advisor of Development in McMaster’s University Advancement department. As part of the University’s highly professional and award-winning fundraising team, she has implemented effective advancement strategies, designed transformative development structures and established innovative partnerships and collaborations. Heather oversees development strategies in McMaster’s faculties of heath sciences and science, as well as the nuclear portfolio and the estate giving and legacy planning team. Throughout her time at McMaster, Heather has been instrumental in driving revenue growth across the University.
Heather has been with McMaster since 2016 in multiple development leadership positions within the Faculty of Science as well as Gift Planning. Prior to that, Heather held development roles at a number of independent schools in Ontario and Quebec, Canada.
Heather received her B.A. in Biomedical Sciences from SUNY at Buffalo and holds a Master of Philanthropy and Non-Profit Leadership from Carleton University. Heather is a Certified Fund Raising Executive.
Maureen MacDonald
Maureen J MacDonald received her Honours BSc in Chemistry from Acadia University, Canada, in 1991 and her MSc (1993) and PhD (1998) in Kinesiology from the University of Waterloo, Canada. After post-doctoral research fellowships at the University of British Columbia and the University of Western Ontario she started her academic career as a faculty member at Wilfrid Laurier University. Since 2000 she has been a faculty member in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, where she is a full professor and the Dean of Science.
Dr. MacDonald the director of the Vascular Dynamics Laboratory and is an active member of the Exercise Metabolism Research Group in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster. Her research interests are in exercise physiology with specialization in the application of ultrasound techniques to the assessment of the peripheral blood vessels. Most recently, together with her research team, she has been examining impact of high intensity interval training on the blood vessels and heart in individuals with coronary artery disease and the use of heat therapy as an alternative to exercise training and focussing on inclusion of women in these areas of research. She has directly supervised over 200 undergraduate and graduate students since her appointment in 2000 and was awarded the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Mentorship award in October 2018. Dr. MacDonald has been continually funded by The Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada since 2001, and currently is also funded by Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
Dr. MacDonald is a member of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Physiological Society, and the European College of Sports Science and. Two research leaves at Stanford University (July 2006-June 2007) and Loughborough University (July 2013-June 2014) provided Dr. MacDonald with international academic exposure and fostered lasting international research collaborations. She retains a Visiting Professor position in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University and is currently on research leave and appointed as a Global Chair at Manchester Metropolitan University in the Institute of Sport.
Kelechi C Ogbonna
After an extensive national search, Kelechi “K.C.” Ogbonna, Pharm.D., M.S.H.A., was named dean of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy in December 2022 having served as interim dean since June 2022. VCU School of Pharmacy is the only public School of Pharmacy in the Commonwealth and ranked in the Top 20 of Schools of Pharmacy nationwide. Prior to that appointment, he served as associate dean of admissions and student services at the School of Pharmacy, overseeing recruitment and student support for the Doctor of Pharmacy program.
Dr. Ogbonna has a fantastic record of innovation and delivering results for students, patients, faculty and staff. As a pharmacist and educator, Dr. Ogbonna has focused on connecting communities with health care, improving health disparities and expanding access to the health professions. As the pharmacy school’s head of admissions and student services, his innovative approaches strengthened student outcomes and expanded student success services, while the school hit historic highs for on-time graduation rates.
Dr. Ogbonna has received VCU’s Riese-Melton Award, the 10 Under 10 Award from the Virginia Pharmacists Association, the President’s Award from the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, and the Black History in the Making Award from VCU’s department of health administration.
Dr. Ogbonna was a pre-pharmacy/chemistry major at Fairleigh Dickinson University and earned his Pharm.D. at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences and a Master’s in Health Administration from VCU. He completed his PGY-1 general pharmacy practice residency and PGY-2 geriatric pharmacy residency within the Veteran Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven, Connecticut where he focused on older adult populations post combat. He joined VCU School of Pharmacy in 2012 as an assistant professor, teaching geriatrics and helping to create the Richmond Health and Wellness Program, the precursor to the VCU Health Hub at 25th. Dr. Ogbonna was also founding director of the school’s postgraduate geriatric residency program. He currently holds the rank of professor at VCU.
Fardin Sanai
Fardin Sanai was appointed UAlbany’s vice president for university advancement and executive director of The University at Albany Foundation in 2007, with responsibility for all fundraising and alumni relations functions. As executive director of the Foundation, Sanai serves as liaison to its board of directors and oversees Foundation operations including investments, real estate, and governance. In addition, Sanai oversaw UAlbany’s division of communications and marketing 2017-2021.
Since 2011 Sanai has served as chair of the executive committee of chief advancement officers for the State University of New York, working closely with his colleagues and the SUNY chancellor to guide the system’s 64 campuses in their fundraising efforts. He has chaired multiple national CASE conferences on Development for Deans and Academic Leaders, and as a faculty member for the SUNY SAIL Institute, has provided executive coaching for new presidents, provosts, and deans.
Under Sanai’s direction, UAlbany’s advancement program has routinely been recognized for industry best practices, receiving ten CASE Circle of Excellence Awards – including a Grand Gold for best online magazine – and seventeen CASE District II Awards.
Sanai is a board member of 15-Love, a non-profit offering free educational programs for inner city youth, the University at Albany Biosciences Development Corporation, and the University Auxiliary Services.
Prior to joining UAlbany, Sanai served as senior vice president for development and foundation operations at Albany Medical Center, and as vice president of institutional advancement and executive director of the Foundation at SUNY Cobleskill. He began his fundraising career at Albany Law School and spent two years as a fundraising consultant for Morin & Anderson, Inc. Sanai holds a bachelor’s degree from Marist College.