Faculty
Meet Your Chair
Liz Reilly
Liz Reilly was previously Director of Philanthropy and Donor Relations at the University of Edinburgh; joining the team in January 2015. Liz moved from Seattle, where she was Director of Development for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, a healthcare provider (with strong advocacy and educational programmes) serving patients in 30 clinics across three states. While there, Liz received the national Planned Parenthood Fundraiser of the Year Award. Liz has also been a campaign director, a fundraising consultant, and a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching at a secondary school in Malawi.
A bit unusually, Liz developed a passion for fundraising as a consultant. By working with and learning from a wide variety of nonprofits, Liz saw how fundraising not only enables acceleration and innovation in mission delivery through philanthropic revenue but also provides organisations with insights from their broad donor communities which can make them more impactful. Fundraisers have important roles both communicating out (representing their institution) and communicating in (representing donors and other stakeholders); this virtuous cycle creates more vibrant and relevant organisations. Relatedly, Liz believes strongly in both the role philanthropy can play in advancing social justice and the importance of maintaining a critical eye on philanthropy and how it can sometimes actually reinforce social inequities. An avid and omnivorous reader, Liz loves trading book recommendations and engaging in heated debates on this and many other topics.
Liz's own giving tends to focus on expanding access to education; this has also been a theme in some of her volunteering, including her current roles as Philanthropic Advisor to the Cowrie Scholarships Foundation and as board member on UNICEF UK's Scotland Advisory board. Having benefited from the support of many female mentors over the years, Liz is also a big believer in women lifting up other women and is always up for a coffee, virtual or otherwise.
Faculty
Dee Brecker
Dee is a qualified executive coach and fundraising consultant. Prior to setting up her own consultancy, Dee held senior leadership roles in high-value philanthropy and communications in leading UK universities (including King's College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science); domestic and international non-government organisations; and the public sector (National Health Service charities, Department of Health, local government). She is an experienced public speaker, panel member, and chair, who speaks on diversity, inclusion, and equity in fundraising.
As a qualified executive coach, Dee focuses on fundraising professionals and their teams. She specialises in supporting professionals of colour as they navigate their careers and women as they move into new or leadership roles.
Dee has a bachelor's degree from the University of Bristol, a master's degree from University College London, and a professional qualification in marketing (CIM). Dee has been a trustee for CASE Europe and a member of faculty for CASE's Europe Spring Institute in Educational Fundraising in 2022 and 2023.
Margaret Clift
Margaret Clift is Head of Strategic Philanthropy at the University of Glasgow. She has been a major gift fundraising specialist for two decades, with a career spanning the higher education, culture and voluntary sectors. Prior to joining the University of Glasgow, she worked on successful major capital campaigns at National Museums Scotland, the University of Edinburgh and Amnesty International UK.
Margaret has acted as speaker, trainer and panellist at conferences, workshops, training sessions and webinars for CASE, the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, RAISE, Global Arts Summit, and Arts and Business Scotland, and provided fundraising advice to charities, museums and galleries across Scotland. She has also served on the Professional Development Committee for CIOF Scotland. As a member of Advisory Panel for Rogare, The Hartsbrook Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy’s 2019 fundraising think tank at the University of Plymouth, she co-authored the Critical Fundraising Report: Scotland (2017).
Margaret won the GLAMi award for most ground-breaking project (Museums and the Web, 2018) and Best Fundraising Campaign over £100,000 at the EMCEEs Arts and Culture Awards for Excellence in Fundraising, 2018. She has been listed in the UK’s Top 25 Most Influential Fundraisers (Fundraising Magazine).
Liesl Elder
Liesl Elder directs the University Development Office, overseeing philanthropic fundraising for the University across the academic divisions, museums and libraries. Her teams work worldwide, including the University’s offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo. She came to Oxford in in 2011 to lead the Oxford Thinking Campaign, managing its relaunch from a £1.25bn to a £3bn campaign, and seeing it though to a successful conclusion last year. The Oxford team won the 2020 CASE Platinum Award for Best Practice in Fundraising.
Liesl has worked in educational fundraising since 1993, beginning her career at the US liberal arts colleges Carleton College and Oberlin College before serving as Campaign Director for Santa Clara University in California. She moved to the UK in 2004 to become Director of Development and Communications at Durham University, followed by a few years in Scotland as Director of Development at the University of Edinburgh.
Juan Pablo Garrido
Juan Pablo Garrido is a seasoned leader in fundraising and philanthropy, with more than 25 years of experience in advancing the mission and vision of diverse organizations in the education and non-governmental sectors. He is currently the Director of Corporate Development at UIC Barcelona, where he oversees the strategic direction and execution of the University's fundraising and engagement programs across the academic divisions and university clinics. Additionally, Juan Pablo plays a pivotal role in guiding the University Advisory Board, fostering collaborative endeavors to strengthen the institution's influence and outreach.
His educational background includes a Master’s in Business from IESE Business School, complemented by Master and Bachelor of Arts degrees in History from Université de Montréal and McGill University, respectively. Additionally, Juan Pablo holds a Certificate in Fundraising Management from the Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.
Kurstin Finch Gnehm
Kurstin Finch Gnehm is a senior fundraiser with experience leading across major gifts, individual giving, legacies, and advancement services. She currently works as the deputy director of philanthropy at the Royal Academy of Music, the U.K.’s top conservatoire, where she looks after individual giving, stewardship, legacies and events. Previously, Kurstin served as regular giving manager for Imperial College London, where her team recently won a CASE Award and the 2016 London Marathon award for most money raised per charity runner. She has also worked in the fundraising team for two of the U.K.’s ancient universities, the University of Aberdeen and the University of St Andrews, where she served as part of the 600th anniversary campaign team. Kurstin started her fundraising career at Linfield University in the United States and holds degrees from Linfield, Oregon State University, and the University of Iowa, where she has also taught communication and gender studies classes. She has a seat on the Learning and Development Committee at the Institute of Fundraising and co-chairs the fundraising track of the CASE Europe Annual Conference. Areas of expertise include data-driven fundraising, regulatory change, and stakeholder management, and Kurstin regularly writes and speaks about fundraising for the IDPE and CASE Europe.
Steve O'Connor
Steve is a passionate advocate of the power of Education and Philanthropy to transform lives and communities locally and worldwide. He has held leadership roles for over two decades in renowned organisations that have courageously sought to address inequality and exclusion and his teams have been recognised for their shared success with many prestigious THE, HEIST, IoF and CASE awards. Notable career highlights include improving vital cancer services for disadvantaged communities at Macmillan Cancer Care, successfully widening access to higher education and the academy for traditionally excluded groups at the Universities of Bristol and Leicester and campaigning to end child poverty as a UK Director at Barnardo’s.
Steve is now consulting in Advancement and Civic Engagement in the HE and charity sectors and is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies, a Certified Member of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising and has been honoured to serve on the CASE SIEF Faculty since 2020. In his downtime, Steve enjoys his passions for sports, literature, film, friends and family, especially grandparent duties.
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.
Associate Faculty
Dr. Joanna McGarry
Joanna McGarry joined the University of Bristol in 2019 as Assistant Director of the newly established Marketing and Communications team within the Development and Alumni Relations Office. Joanna and her team deliver integrated marketing and communications activity to further the University’s strategic objectives around philanthropy, fundraising and alumni engagement. The team lead on content and channels for Bristol’s mass alumni audience, including the University’s annual alumni awards campaign, its digital communications programme, and its alumni magazine. The team also work closely with DARO colleagues on integrated activity for specific audiences, including new alumni on-boarding, mass fundraising and stewardship, and collateral to support major giving activity.
Prior to her role at the University of Bristol, Joanna worked in marketing, communications, brand and editorial roles at Imperial College London; City, University of London; and the educational publisher Palgrave Macmillan.
Fiona Ross
Fiona is the Director of Development at Giggleswick School, where she is leading on the creation and delivery of the school’s first major Development Strategy. Prior to this, she was the Director of Development at the Grammar School at Leeds having joined the school from the University of Leeds where she was the lead on the Student Theme of their first major campaign “Making a World of Difference” which successfully raised over £60 million. Fiona has experience with multidimensional campaigns and is particularly skilled in fundraising for bursary and outreach projects. Her roles at GSAL and Giggleswick have had the same focus on the professionalisation of development activity; establishing protocols and procedures, developing events and engagement strategies, and of course fundraising using a variety of channels from direct mail to principal giving.
Lisa Williams
Lisa Williams has worked in the Development and Alumni Relations team at Exeter for over 17 years. During that time, Lisa has held a variety of roles including regular giving, legacy and major gift fundraising. In 2014 Lisa was appointed to the newly created role of Head of Operations and now oversees the prospect research, data and insight, finance and donor relations functions.