Faculty and Guest Speakers
Dr. Barbara Altmann
Dedicated to F&M’s liberal-arts mission and work-force preparation, President Altmann is committed to deepening and broadening the connections between the Franklin & Marshall community and a changing world.
Dr. Altmann recently led the largest campaign in the College’s history to a successful conclusion. She is currently leading the College through the implementation of a strategic plan, entitled L&AD: Leveraging Excellence, Accelerating Discovery, that will position F&M to better respond to student priorities and academic interests, invest in student and alumni success, and ensure institutional sustainability.
In addition to her leadership at F&M, President Altmann is currently an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania (AICUP), and the Board of Trustees of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), the Fulton Theatre, and the Economic Development Company of Lancaster.
Before her arrival at F&M, Dr. Altmann had served as the provost at Bucknell University since 2015. A native of Canada, she received her bachelor’s degree with honors in romance languages at the University of Alberta. She earned her master’s degree in French from the University of Toronto, where she also earned her doctorate in medieval French language and literature.
As a scholar of the French Middle Ages, Dr. Altmann served for more than 25 years at the University of Oregon. She was a professor of French, head of the Department of Romance Languages, and director of the Oregon Humanities Center before spending her last three years at the university as senior vice provost for academic affairs. Early in her career, she also served as an assistant visiting professor at Dartmouth College.
President Altmann has written or edited four books and written numerous articles, reviews and conference papers in her field of expertise. In academic circles, she has served as an elected delegate to the executive councils of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Modern Language Association.
Professor Shitij Kapur
Professor Shitij Kapur is the Vice-Chancellor & President of King’s College London. He returned to lead King’s in June 2021, following more than four years at the University of Melbourne, where he was Dean and Assistant Vice Chancellor (Health) for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and interim Deputy Vice Chancellor (International).
Professor Kapur is well known at King’s having previously served, between 2007 to 2016, as Assistant Principal (Academic Performance), Dean and Head of School for the Institute of Psychiatry and the founding Executive Dean of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN).
Professor Kapur is a member of the College Council and also serves on the Governance and Nominations Committee, the Estates Strategy Committee, the Finance Committee, the Investment Subcommittee, the Governance & Nominations Committee, the Chairs' Committee and the Fellowships & Honorary Degrees Committee.
During his time in Melbourne, Professor Kapur significantly increased the educational footprint of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, introducing innovative models of learning, increasing both research income and impact, while doubling philanthropic support. In collaboration with colleagues across the university and medical research Institutes he was involved in creating the Centre for the Digital Transformation of Health and establishing the Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery. He Co-Chaired the Australian Million Minds Mission and during the Covid pandemic took a lead role in bringing together scholars from the Group of Eight Universities to deliver the ‘Roadmap to Recovery – a Report for the Nation’.
Professor Kapur graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in 1988. He went on to complete his residency training in Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, and a Fellowship in Schizophrenia and a PhD in Neuroscience from the Institute of Medical Science, both at the University of Toronto.
Professor Kapur is recognised worldwide for his own research on understanding psychosis and antipsychotic treatment – with over 300 papers, numerous presentations and an H-index of over a hundred. While at King’s he led NEWMEDS, an international consortium of scientists from 19 institutions from nine EU countries, which was one of the largest academic-industry research collaboration projects in its time. He has received many awards and honorary fellowships including the honours of Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK), Fellow of the Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (Australia) and Fellow of King's College London. He has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Copenhagen.
Kirsty MacDonald
Kirsty MacDonald has enjoyed a career encompassing director level positions in leading educational and cultural institutions over thirty years in the UK and Canada. For almost seven years she has been Deputy Principal (Advancement) at the Royal Academy of Music and in summer 2022 was awarded an Hon FRAM for her achievements there. A member of the senior management team, she leads strategic planning and is responsible for external relations including fundraising, marketing, communications, audience engagement and alumni relations. She devised and launched the largest fundraising campaign for a music college, outside the US, with a target of £60m.
Kirsty has delivered transformational outcomes in every role she has taken on, which includes fundraising leadership roles at the universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh and Oxford (Wadham College). Her previous experience across higher education and the arts includes London Business School, English National Opera, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Glyndebourne. A mentor to several fundraising leaders, she is well known throughout the UK Advancement sector, often invited to speak at national conferences in higher education and serves as the Chair of the CASE Europe Trust. Kirsty has an Honours BA from the University of Toronto and in 2009 was awarded an MA Oxon.
Professor Ilkka Niemelä
Professor Ilkka Niemelä was appointed as the President of Aalto University in 2017. Before that he served as the Provost of Aalto University since 2014. He is a professor of computer science widely known of his work in knowledge representation and constraint programming. He has held visiting positions at SRI International, University of Koblenz-Landau, and National ICT Australia. He has also served as the President of Cluster, a consortium of 12 elite European universities in science and engineering, and the chair of Nordic 5 Tech, a strategic alliance of the five leading technical universities in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
Professor Niemelä has served in several committees on national higher education and research policy including national research infrastructures, IT for science, autonomy of universities, and sustainable growth for higher education. Currently, he is leading a national effort to create a digital platform for flexible higher education for Finland (Digivision 2030 project). Professor Niemelä has a doctorate from the Helsinki University of Technology in 1993. He is a Fellow of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence and an invited member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and the Finnish Academy of Technology. He has been decorated for his service as Cross of Merit by the Order of the Lion of Finland as Commander First Class.
Sue Cunningham
Sue Cunningham is President and CEO of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), which supports over 3,000 schools, colleges and universities worldwide in developing their integrated advancement work (alumni relations, communications, fundraising and marketing operations). As CASE President and CEO, Ms. Cunningham provides strategic and operational leadership for one of the largest associations of education-related institutions in the world with members in over 80 countries. She started her leadership role at CASE in March 2015.
While at CASE, Ms. Cunningham has engaged CASE in two strategic planning processes. The first, which engaged thousands of CASE volunteers, resulted in Reimagining CASE: 2017-2021, and created an ambitious framework for serving CASE’s members and championing education worldwide, which included a comprehensive restructure of CASE’s volunteer leadership and governance structure. Building on the strengths of this plan, she led a recalibration exercise that resulted in Championing Advancement: CASE 2022-2027. This Plan articulates a clear strategic intent: that CASE will define the competencies and standards for the profession of advancement, and lead and champion their dissemination and application across the world’s educational institutions.
Among the key initiatives that have developed under her leadership include the redesign and delivery of a new global governance structure. In addition, CASE acquired the Voluntary Support of Education survey and created CASE’s Insights, CASE’s global research and data efforts. CASE published the first global and digital edition of CASE’s Global Reporting Standards and Guidelines, which operate as the industry-leading Standards for the profession, and launched the first global Alumni Engagement survey in addition to annual fundraising surveys. CASE created an ambitious competencies model across all advancement disciplines and a related career journey framework; opened the CASE Opportunities and Inclusion Center which focuses on equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging; and has reinvigorated a global advocacy agenda to communicate the value of education. Ms. Cunningham serves as a Trustee and Secretary for the University of San Diego, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board. She is a member of the Signature Theatre (Arlington, Virginia) Board of Directors, Chairs their Governance Committee, and sits on the Executive Committee. She is a member of the Washington Higher Education Secretariat steering committee, the International Association of University Presidents Executive Committee, and the International Women’s Forum. She has recently been named to the new, US-based Council of Higher Education as a Strategic Asset. She is the author of ‘Global Exchange: Dialogues to Advance Education’.
Prior to her appointment to CASE, Ms. Cunningham served as Vice-Principal for Advancement at the University of Melbourne where she led the Believe campaign resulting in surpassing its original $500 million goal; and the Director of Development for the University of Oxford where she led the development team through the first phase of the largest fundraising campaign outside of the United States (at the time): Oxford Thinking, with a goal of £1.25 billion. She served as Director of Development at Christ Church, Oxford and as Director of External Relations at St. Andrews University.
Before working in education, Ms. Cunningham enjoyed a career in theatre, the arts and the cultural sector. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2012, Ms. Cunningham received the CASE Europe Distinguished Service Award, and has received the coveted CASE Crystal Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. Ms. Cunningham was awarded a master’s degree from the University of Oxford, a bachelor’s degree in performing arts from Middlesex University, and is a graduate of the Columbia University Senior Executive Program.
Paul Ramsbottom
Paul Ramsbottom is Chief Executive of The Wolfson Foundation and its sister charity, the Wolfson Family Charitable Trust. Paul takes a wider interest in issues relating to philanthropy in the UK as a speaker and writer. He has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in History from the University of Oxford.
Outside of philanthropy, he has an interest in international development which includes founding the Savannah Education Trust - a charity which works in West Africa – and sitting on the Board of Mercy Ships UK. His hometown university, the University of Bedfordshire, awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2013. In January 2020 he was awarded an OBE for services to charity.
Alistair Jarvis CBE
Alistair Jarvis' role at the University of London includes leadership of governance, communications, development, marketing, legal, inclusion, regulatory compliance and supporting partnerships with federation members.
He was CEO of Universities UK from 2017 to 2022. Leading the representative body for the UK’s 140 universities - a registered charity and six subsidiary entities - his role included influencing policy, strategy and member engagement. Before this, he was Deputy CEO and Director of External Relations since 2013.
Previously, he was a Director at the University of Birmingham and has held external engagement roles for national organisations. Alistair received a CBE in 2022 for services to Higher Education and supporting the sector during the covid-19 crisis.
He is a member of the UCAS Board of Trustees and a member of the advisory boards of Wonkhe, the UPP Foundation and the Discovery Decade project. Alistair was educated at the Universities of Kent, Leicester and the Institute of Education, UCL.
Ben Plummer-Powell
Ben joined LSE in February 2018. Ben serves as one of nine members of the university’s leadership team, has strategic oversight for philanthropy, alumni engagement, corporate engagement, international strategy, and global academic partnerships, and leads on the most significant philanthropic opportunities, travelling extensively overseas. Since joining LSE, Ben has created and overseen the launch of LSE’s Shaping the World philanthropic and volunteering Campaign, with an initial goal to raise £350m. In 2021-22 LSE raised nearly £95m. Ben is also a senior inclusivity champion for LSE and more widely.
Outside of LSE, Ben is Chair of the Ross Group and is a Board member for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE Europe) and this year is serving on the CASE Global Advancement Leaders’ Summit Planning Committee. Prior to LSE, Ben worked at Oxford University for eight years, overseeing the University’s fundraising teams, where the Oxford Thinking Campaign grew from £800m to £2.7bn. Prior to Oxford, Ben spent 10 years at Warwick University, initially in international marketing and recruitment, then overseeing philanthropy, alumni and corporate engagement at Warwick Business School and serving the wider University leading on international philanthropy in East Asia.
Having secured a scholarship to attend a private secondary school, and having received funding for undergraduate and graduate study, Ben is a passionate advocate of social mobility and the role of education for the betterment of society.
Emily Robin
Emily Robin leads the team of 65 advancement professionals working to serve London Business School’s global network of alumni on its learning journey, creating value for all members of the community and inspiring philanthropic giving through the £200 million Forever Forward campaign. Before joining LBS, Emily led the Reunion and Leadership Giving at INSEAD. She began her career at her alma maters, the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School, later oversaw the Major Gifts program at Bryn Mawr College, then built an integrated advancement department at the American School of Paris.
Emily is an active volunteer of both CASE and the Association Française des Fundraisers. She has also served on the Conseil d’Administration of the Sections Internationales de Sèvres Paris Ouest and the Board of Directors of the Ecole Française Internationale de Philadelphie. She served as Chair of the CASE Spring 2024 Institute in Educational Fundraising.
Emily is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business of the Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Master of Arts in Linguistics with Distinction from University College, London. She is fluent in both English and French.
Lord Nicholas Stern
Lord Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at London School of Economics (since 2007), Head of the India Observatory and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. He was President of the Royal Economics Society (2018-2019). He was President of the British Academy (July 2013-2017) and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (June 2014). He has held previous posts at universities in the UK and abroad, including Oxford and Warwick universities; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the Ecole Polytechnique; and the Collège de France, in Paris. He was Chief Economist at both the World Bank (2000-2003) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1994-1999).
Lord Stern was Head of the UK Government Economic Service (2003-2007), Second Permanent Secretary to Her Majesty’s Treasury (2003-2005), and Director of Policy and Research for the Prime Minister’s Commission for Africa (2004-2005). He also produced the landmark Stern Review on the economics of climate change (2005-2007).
Research and publications have focused on the economics of climate change, economic development and growth, economic theory, tax reform, public policy and the role of the state and economies in transition. He has published more than 15 books and 100 articles. His first books were on tea in Kenya and the Green Revolution, in India (where he lived for 8 months in a village in Northern India in 1974/75). He is still studying the same village and its economic and social changes. He has published more than 15 books and 100 articles. His most recent books are “Growth and Empowerment: Making Development Happen” (MIT Press, 2005), A Blueprint for a Safer Planet” (Random House, 2009), “Why Are We Waiting? The Logic, Urgency and Promise of Tackling Climate Change” (MIT Press, 2015), “How Lives Change. Palanpur, India and Development Economics” (with Himanshu, JNU, and Peter Lanjouw, Free University of Amsterdam) published by Oxford University Press in 2018, and “Standing Up for a Sustainable World: Voices of Change” (Edward Elgar, 2020).
Lord Stern was elected Fellow of the British Academy (July 1993) and Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1998). He has a BA Cambridge (Mathematics), D.Phil Oxford (Economics), and Honorary Doctorates from Universities of Exeter); Roehampton; Sussex; Sheffield; York; East Anglia; Paris-Dauphine; Brighton; Technische Universität Berlin; City University of New York; Oxford, Ghent; Mons, Strathclyde. He holds Honorary Fellowships at St Catherine’s College, Oxford; The Queen's College, Oxford; and Peterhouse, Cambridge, and was awarded an Honoris Causa degree from the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan in December 2022.
Prizes awarded include the Royal Geographical Society Patron’s Medal (June 2009); the Asahi Glass Foundation Blue Planet Prize (2009); the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2011); the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought (2011); the Aguila Azteca, Mexico's highest honor for a foreigner (2012); and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) Prize for Contributions to Economic Policy, (2020); Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) Prize for Contributions to Economic Policy, 2020; Bernhard Harms Prize, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, 2021; Priyadarshni Academy Harish Mahindra Memorial Global Award, 2021; Sustainability Award Supported by the Nobel Sustainability Trust for Leadership in Implementation (2023).
Lord Stern served as a member on the High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Finance established by the UN Secretary General (2010), as Co-Chair for the Global Comm