Rashid Bashir is Dean of The Grainger College of Engineering, the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previously, he was the Executive Associate Dean at the Carle-Illinois College of Medicine (2017–present), the Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering, Head of Department of Bioengineering (2013–2017), and Director of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory (a campus-wide clean room research facility) (2007–2013). Prior to joining UIUC, he was at Purdue University (1998–2007) with faculty appointments in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Bioengineering. From 1992 to 1998 he worked at National Semiconductor Corporation in Santa Clara, CA as Sr. Engineering Manager. 

He graduated with a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1992. He has authored or co-authored over 250 journal papers, over 200 conference papers and conference abstracts, and over 120 invited talks, and has been granted 49 patents. He received the NSF Faculty Early Career Award, the 2012 IEEE EMBS Technical Achievement Award, and the Pritzker Distinguished Lectureship Award from BMES in 2018. He is a fellow of IEEE, AIMBE, AAAS, BMES, IAMBE, RSC, APS, and NAI. He has been involved in 3 startups that have licensed his technologies. He was part of the core founding team and co-chair of the curriculum committee for the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the world’s first engineering based College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

His research group is interested in developing new technologies for precision and personalized medicine, and 3D bio-fabrication of cellular systems. Using bionanotechnology, BioMEMS, and lab on chip, he is working at the interface of biology and engineering from the molecular to the tissue scale, and aiming to make an impact on grand challenges in health and medicine including cancer, sepsis, and others. 

In addition to leading his own research group, he was the PI on an NSF IGERT on Cellular and Molecular Mechanics and Bionanotechnology and PI on an NIH Training Grant on Cancer Nanotechnology. He is also co-PI on a recently funded National Research Traineeship (NRT) from NSF. He is also Associate Director and UIUC site lead on an NSF Science and Technology Center on Emergent Behavior of Integrated Cellular Systems (with MIT, Georgia Tech, and other partners). 

Kate is the Director of Advancement, Trinity College Dublin and the Chief Executive Officer of Trinity Foundation. She led Trinity’s first comprehensive philanthropic campaign – the €400M Inspiring Generations campaign. Kate is responsible for the strategy and operations of philanthropy, alumni engagement, regular giving, corporate and foundation relations, development and alumni communications and donor relations.

Kate is a member of the CASE Commission for Philanthropy.

Kate has held a variety of senior university fundraising and administrative roles over the past 20 years. She has particular expertise in establishing and improving the performance of advancement teams and enjoys identifying and managing the change required for this.

Before joining Trinity in 2016, Kate was the Deputy Director of Alumni Relations & Philanthropy at the Australian National University where she led the establishment of the philanthropy and donor relations teams and prior to this was the Director of Development & Alumni Relations at Ulster University in Northern Ireland.

An English graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, Kate began her career in marketing and fundraising for professional theatre and worked in the arts for over 10 years. As a fundraiser she has drawn on this experience to create authentic narratives that inspire supporters.

Dr. Michael Bumbry has nearly 15 years of experience in higher education administration including careers in both student affairs and advancement. He currently serves as the Senior Director of Alumni Outreach and Engagement at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). In his current role, Dr. Bumbry manages a team of alumni directors who support the academic units, with a focus on strategic engagement and pipeline development. Prior to UCSD, he served as Director of Development at the Kogod School of Business at American University. Dr. Bumbry previously served in various development and student affairs roles at Johns Hopkins University, University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, Temple University, and North Carolina State University.

In addition to his full-time position at UCSD, Dr. Bumbry serves as Vice President of the American College Personnel Association- College Student Educators International (ACPA) Foundation Board. He has served on the faculty of two previous CASE Development for Deans and Academic Leaders conferences, and is the former Chair of the CASE Advancement Internship conference.

Dr. Bumbry holds a B.A. in broadcast communications from Elon University, an M.Ed. in higher education administration from North Carolina State University, and a Ph.D. in higher education administration from Loyola University Chicago.

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.

A driven and enthusiastic leader, Dr. Andrew P. Daire joined the VCU School of Education as its new dean in June 2016.

Daire came to VCU from the University of Houston, where he served as the College of Education’s associate dean for research for nearly two years. His resume also includes more than 25 years of experience in higher education, 13 of which came at the University of Central Florida, where he co-founded the university's Marriage and Family Research Institute, also served as the College of Education’s associate dean for research, among other accomplishments. A prolific researcher and scholar, Daire has received over $16 million in external funding to support his research in family stability and mobility with economically marginalized couples and families and his secondary research interest in career development STEM recruitment and retention. He remains research and scholarly active in these areas through refereed and scholarly publications and presentations along with being a Senior Fellow in the Consortium for Family Strengthening Research.

Combining an academic and clinical background in counseling and psychology with expertise in research, Daire's style of transformative leadership emphasizes personal and professional development, and motivating faculty, staff and students towards excellence, innovation and impact in their work every day.

A big believer in the value of community engagement as well, Daire believes research and instruction are at their best (and most innovative) when focused on serving the public, particularly those most in need.

Jay Davenport, CFRE, serves as vice president of Development and Alumni Relations for Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Health.

As VCU’s chief development and alumni officer, Jay leads fundraising and engagement efforts for the VCU enterprise, including the Monroe Park Campus, the health sciences campus and VCU Health. Areas under his purview include Advancement Solutions, alumni relations, annual giving, corporate and foundation relations, development and alumni communications, donor engagement, planned giving, presidential advancement, principal giving, regional philanthropy and the universitywide development staff.

Jay joined VCU and VCU Health in 2017 in the middle of a $750 million campaign and helped steer the campaign to a successful conclusion, raising over $840 million. In the past six years, Jay has helped VCU and VCU Health raise over $1 billion and is currently designing the first comprehensive campaign for the VCU and VCU Health.

Jay has previously led fundraising teams at Wake Forest University, including as assistant vice president of college development, assistant vice president of major gifts and associate vice president and campaign director. He has also served as director of development and team leader at Rice University and held fundraising positions as a college development director at the University of Memphis College of Business and Wright State University College of Engineering. He began his higher education career as an assistant dean of admissions at Wittenberg University.

Jay has served on the board of directors for Make-A-Wish of Greater Virginia and the Benedictine Schools of Richmond. Jay holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Xavier University and a master's degree in higher education administration from Ball State University.

Jean Giddens is Dean and Professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing in Richmond Virginia, a position she has held since July 2013. Prior to her position at VCU, she held various leadership positions at the University of New Mexico College of Nursing. Dr. Giddens has had significant national influence on nursing education through her involvement with the revision of the AACN Essentials, academic progression in nursing, curriculum expertise, as a consultant, and as an author of multiple journal articles, nursing textbooks, and electronic media. Dr. Giddens received a BSN degree from the University of Kansas, MSN degree from University of Texas, El Paso, and a PhD degree from Colorado State University. She is also an alumna of the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow program, 2011 Cohort.

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. 

Professor Gerard McHugh is Associate Professor of Accounting, and University Dean of Development at Trinity College Dublin.

Gerard qualified as a Certified Accountant with the Dublin Office of Deloitte. Subsequently, he earned his masters and doctoral degrees in the UK at the University of Sheffield and Loughborough University respectively. Gerard served as Dean of Trinity Business School from 2001 through 2011 and was instrumental in preparing the School for a period of sustained growth beginning in 2008. Working with Trinity Development & Alumni, he led the philanthropic campaign for Trinity’s new Business School which opened in 2019.

In 2015, Gerard was appointed as Trinity College’s first Dean of Development, working closely with the President and Trinity Development & Alumni on the College’s first ever comprehensive philanthropic campaign, Inspiring Generations. He serves as a non-executive director on a number of boards, audit committees, and advisory bodies.

Nora Sheffe, founder and president of Sheffe Consulting Inc., is an accomplished and innovative IAF CertifiedTM Professional Facilitator with more than 20 years of experience designing and delivering facilitated leadership group sessions in organizations and communities across Canada, the United States, and around the world. She was certified by the International Association of Facilitators  and remains an active member in good standing.

Through Sheffe Consulting Inc., Sheffe has grown the network and resources to facilitate groups and organizations of all sizes to discuss important issues, share research and best practices, identify priorities, and define next steps.

She also provides training in the areas of leadership, communication, conflict resolution, and facilitation. 

Deirdre has almost 20 years of senior fundraising experience and is currently the Director of Campaigns for Trinity College Dublin. She played a central role in the strategic planning of Trinity’s first ever philanthropic campaign Inspiring Generations which has a philanthropic target of €400m. Deirdre leads a team of nine fundraisers along with support staff and is responsible for securing major and principal gifts for the campaign whilst ensuring processes around research, pipeline development, stewardship and volunteer engagement are embedded for the long-term success of philanthropic activity in Trinity.

Deirdre has led a number of capital campaigns, including the newly opened Trinity Business School and Science Gallery Dublin which pioneered a Global Science Gallery Network currently being rolled out in eight countries.

Prior to working in Trinity, Deirdre spent two years as the Fundraising Manager for the National Children’s Hospital. Working closely with the Deputy CEO, she was responsible for all fundraising activities and outcomes for the hospital.

Deirdre’s previous experience was as Marketing Manager with Reuters for six years and European Account Manager with Maxwell Online, London, an online patent and scientific database company. Deirdre holds a B.Sc. from University College Dublin.

Marcus Ward is the Vice President (Advancement) at Griffith University in Queensland and is an accomplished advancement leader and philanthropy expert with international experience at leading organisations including The Prince’s Trust in London. 
 
Previously Chief Philanthropy Officer at Monash University, Marcus oversaw their first ever comprehensive fundraising campaign 'Change it. For good.' one of Australia’s most successful philanthropic campaigns and establishing Monash as one of Australia’s leading universities for philanthropic partnership. This included some of the largest philanthropic investments in Australian HE and building a community of 43,000 donors to inspire transformational support for breakthrough research and education for all. 
 
Prior to moving to Australia in 2013, Marcus was Head of Major Gifts at Queen’s University Belfast, where he worked on two comprehensive fundraising campaigns which redefined the importance of philanthropy in Northern Ireland and culminated in the team being recognised as the Times Higher University Fundraising Team of the Year 2012. 
 
Before that Marcus led the Corporate and Trust Fundraising Team at The Prince's Trust in London, the Prince of Wales's largest charity, securing its largest ever philanthropic relationship with the English Premier League, still in place over 20 years later.