Candis Arthur

Associate Vice President for Philanthropic Operations

Berea College

Candis Arthur, CFRE, Associate Vice President for Philanthropic Operations at Berea College, has ten years of experience in fundraising and has overseen a donor relations shop for the past three years, working closely with donor relations staff on all programs. She also manages Annual Giving, Advancement Services, and the Prospect Management and Data Services teams. Candis graduated from Berea College in 2011 and earned her LEAN Greenbelt in 2019. She earned her CFRE in 2017 with recertification in 2020.

Eloise Brice

Vice Chancellor for University Advancement

University of Houston System

Eloise Brice coordinates fundraising for the University of Houston System. Under her leadership, UH System launched a $1 billion fundraising campaign, which surpassed its goal 18 months ahead of schedule.

Since her appointment, Brice has created UH’s first institution-wide volunteer advisory committee for the President and a high-profile volunteer Campaign Executive Committee. She currently serves in an ex officio role on the Boards of the University’s affiliated Foundations including UH Foundation and UHAA.

She is the author of the book "I’ll Do Anything, Just Don’t Make Me Fundraise: A Guide for Reluctant Fundraising Volunteers."

Mo Cotton Kelly

Vice President, Alumni Relations, Marketing and Communications and Annual Giving

University of Connecticut

“Mo,” as she is called by family, friends, and colleagues, leads and works alongside the University of Connecticut Alumni Relations staff and hundreds of volunteers to engage and connect more than 255,000 UConn alumni worldwide. She was recruited to join UConn in 2014. Mo provides strategic leadership and vision for alumni relations while directing the efforts of alumni and volunteers and cultivating development opportunities for the University.

Mo was previously Executive Director of the Bowling Green State University Alumni Association and received her Bachelor’s degree and M.Ed. from BGSU.

She is an active member of the Council for Alumni Association Executives (CAAE) and currently sits on the CASE District 1 Board.

In all, Mo has more than 21 years of experience with higher education institutions in the university advancement field where she has developed exemplary leadership and relationship-building skills, and a national reputation as a leader in the industry.

Bree Grim

Campaign Coordinator & Assistant to the Associate Vice President for Development

The Evergreen State College

Bree Grim has facilitated student engagement and donor stewardship for Advancement and the Foundation at the Evergreen State College since 2019. Her passion for ethical storytelling is informed by her diverse experience as a teacher of a Professional Ethics and Communication course for a massage licensing program, and over ten years' experience coordinating legal and financial transactions in the real estate industry. Bree is a current undergraduate at Evergreen, where her studies have centered around social and environmental justice. She is excited to complete her Bachelor of Arts degree in June of 2021.

Valerie Harris

Senior Director, Stewardship Communications

University of Pennsylvania

Valerie Harris is Senior Director, Stewardship Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. Since 2011, Valerie has built a diverse, award-winning team of seven that produces donor correspondence for the highest levels of leadership, averaging over 3000 items annually. Additionally, the team prepares more than 1200 annual reports to scholarship donors and produces two editions annually of the Penn Parents publication. Valerie consistently promotes interdisciplinary training, process documentation, and professional development. She is pleased to lead a multitalented team that is adept at collaborating with fundraising officers and is fully engaged in stewardship communications and its role in supporting exemplary donor relations.

Kate Heusner

Managing Director of Development

University of California San Diego

Kate believes global perspective, creativity, and innoDOnor vation lead to more engaged communities and better economic outcomes. She is an experienced development strategist and fundraiser who joined UC San Diego in 2017. Prior to UC San Diego, Kate held leadership positions at Lux Art Institute in Encinitas overseeing philanthropy and earned revenue strategies, and as Deputy Director at Galerie Mor Charpentier in Paris, France launching the gallery's sales portfolio in the UK and NALA markets. She has worked with numerous arts and education organizations including the University of Oregon, Oregon Bach Festival, MFA, Boston, MASS MoCA, and Disjecta Contemporary Art Center.

Tana Jones

Senior Director of Stewardship

University of Arizona Foundation

Tana Jones, CFRE is dedicated to these tenets of donor centricity as the Senior Director of Stewardship with the University of Arizona: make your donors the superhero of the story; donors are people, not ATMs; pay deep attention to the values and needs of donors. Joining the university in 2015, she developed a comprehensive stewardship program for the University of Arizona's Health Sciences and later joined the central advancement office with the goal of building a university-wide stewardship program. Prior to joining academic advancement, she dedicated 20 years to the non-profit community, directing development programs for cultural and social service organizations.

Nicole Martz

Assistant Director of Development

William Penn Charter School

At Penn Charter, Nicole is responsible for the overall administration and execution of donor engagement through stewardship and cultivation activities and events. Before coming to Penn Charter, Nicole worked as an event consultant for non-profits by providing strategic event management. Nicole spent 8 years as a management consultant focused on communications management, organizational analysis, and performance design and development.

Bianca Milevoj

Development Officer

The Evergreen State College

Bianca Milevoj serves as a Development Officer co-leading the Annual Giving program at The Evergreen State College Foundation. Bianca regularly collaborates with students to tell their stories for purposes of donor stewardship and solicitation, shared through various vehicles including direct mail, email, print, and web. Each collaboration with a student is a beautiful opportunity to illustrate donor impact, while ensuring the finished product is centered around student voice, resilience, and success. Bianca earned her BA at Evergreen in 2012 with concentrations in visual arts, and will complete Evergreen's Master of Public Administration program in June 2021.

Andrea Miller

Senior Vice President, Constituent Relations, Marketing/Communications, Giving Programs

University of Arizona Foundation

As a senior vice president with the University Alumni & Development Program, Andrea Miller is passionate about engaging alumni and friends in supporting the University of Arizona. She joined the team in 2011 and oversees alumni and constituent engagement, annual and leadership giving programs, marketing and communications, donor relations and stewardship, board relations, and business partnership programs. Andrea unwittingly launched a career in development many years ago as an undergraduate student caller. Since then, she has served the missions of diverse organizations—including Make-A-Wish America, the Thunderbird School of Global Management, an agency for homeless youth, and Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Heidi Rosano

Senior Director of Donor Stewardship

University of California, Irvine

Heidi Rosano is a dynamic advancement professional with over 17 years of experience in higher education and non-profit leadership. She has served in a blend of externally facing roles as well as internal, service-oriented positions focused on fundraising and promoting philanthropy that changes lives. She currently serves as the senior director of donor stewardship at her alma mater, the University of California, Irvine (UCI).

Before joining UCI, Heidi served nearly a decade at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy where she obtained multiple roles with increasing responsibilities managing and overseeing events, programming, alumni relations, annual fund, engagement, communications, and stewardship. Prior to her work at USC Price, Heidi worked at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the American Cancer Society where she led teams to raise funds through community support, events, and corporate giving campaigns.

Heidi has a proven track record of analyzing, enhancing, and centralizing processes by creating databases, training documents, onboarding materials, and launching internal councils and communications making her a go-to person known for collaboration and teamwork across the organizations she has worked for.

In addition to being a UCI Anteater with a degree in political science, Heidi graduated from Cal State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) with a master’s degree in public administration focused on non-profit organizational behavior and theory.

Tanya Rumble

Director of Development, Faculty of Arts

Ryerson University

Tanya is a racialized settler of multi-ethnic origins living in Toronto. She is a fundraising leader who has raised millions for some of Canada's largest charities including Heart and Stroke Foundation, Canadian Cancer Society, McMaster University and now Ryerson University. As a racialized philanthropy professional Tanya is honoured to share her influence and insights with students, emerging professionals and peers in the sector. Tanya regularly writes articles on the topics of inclusion, equity, and access; and power, privilege and fundraising for industry publications and speaks to professional audiences at learning events regularly.

She graduated with an H.B.A., Political Science from McMaster University, earned a Masters Certificate at NYU in Marketing Communications and has completed numerous professional certificates including Not-For-Profit Governance Essentials (Rotman School of Management, Institute of Corporate Directors) and Truth and Reconciliation Through Right Relations (Banff Centre). Tanya has been a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) since 2017, completed her Master Financial Advisor - Philanthropy (MFA-P™) in April 2020, and most recently was approved to take the certification exam for the Communication Management Professional (CMP) designation through International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).

Tanya is an active leadership volunteer in the philanthropy and non-profit sector: Board Director with the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Canada, and Board Committee volunteer with AFP Canada-Foundation; volunteer with the Canadian Association of Gift Planners; Vice-Chair of the Board and Chair of the HR Committee with 211 Toronto; and Board Director with Native Child and Family Services of Toronto. In addition to sharing her knowledge, she is committed to lifelong learning - a graduate of the 2017 Association of Fundraising Professionals Inclusion and Philanthropy Fellowship, and 2010 DiverseCity Fellowship. Tanya gratefully acknowledges the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations, whose traditional territory she lives and works with her husband and young son.

Karlee Simek

Assistant Director, Alumni and Donor Programs

University of California San Diego

Karlee serves as the Assistant Director, Alumni and Donor Programs at the Rady School of Management at University of California San Diego. A Development professional with extensive experience serving higher education and nonprofit cultural organizations, Karlee’s expertise is in the areas of project management and administration.

Margaret Stutt

Associate Director, Donor Stewardship

University of California, Berkeley

Margaret serves as the Associate Director for Donor Stewardship at UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business. She serves on the Board of Directors and leads fundraising for The Stability Network, an international mental health advocacy nonprofit. She is also the Association of Donor Relations Professionals Research Committee Co-Chair. She earned her CFRE in 2021, and has received national recognition for her stewardship reports as well as the CASE District VII Rising Star award in 2020. She is also an Indie musician who has recorded 12 albums, toured nationally, and received press and media coverage including NPR national syndicates.

Mindy Townsend

Executive Director of Donor Experiences and Services

Berea College

Mindy Townsend, Executive Director of Donor Experiences and Services at Berea College in Kentucky, has 16 years of experience in stewardship, donor relations, development communications, and advancement services. She graduated from the University of Evansville in 2002 and earned her LEAN Greenbelt in 2020. She earned her CFRE in 2020.

Carme Williams

Vice President for Development

Prairie View A&M University

Carme Williams is the VP of Development at Prairie View A&M University with more than 20 years of experience in leadership, management, and fundraising in the nonprofit arena. In 3 years, a 48% increase in gifts to PVAMU and recently a $50M gift. She implemented new programs for meaningful engagement. She was the Senior VP for the Harris Foundation/Institute where she managed all of the fundraising. Williams was a part of Rice University's $1B Capital Campaign. As Director for the School of Humanities, she developed priorities, strategies, internal and external marketing material. Williams created a comprehensive strategy targeting diverse alumni and friends to engage with the Rice.



Mariya Yurokova

Senior Development Officer, Arts

Queen’s University

Mariya is an experienced fundraiser and thought leader. With over fifteen years of experience in fundraising, Mariya has raised more than $20MM for various organizations, working on gifts ranging from millions to direct marketing campaigns for first time donors. Mariya is an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the nonprofit sector, with publications in Hilborn Charity E-News, Advancing Philanthropy, CASE Currents Magazine and more. Mariya. As a first generation immigrant woman and part of an interracial family, Mariya is keenly aware of systemic inequities in the nonprofit sector and works towards advancing social justice causes while acknowledging her privilege.