Heidi Hansen McCrory is vice president for development at Furman University and is responsible for annual and endowment support, major gifts and capital campaigns, alumni and parent relations, and donor relations and stewardship. She joined Furman in 2018 after serving four years as vice president for college relations at Kenyon College in Ohio. She has held previous advancement leadership positions at Sweet Briar College, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and New England College.

McCrory is a committed volunteer for a number of organizations including the Girl Scouts of the USA where she has served as a council board chair, board member, national delegate, cookie mom, fundraiser and speaker. In 2007, she received the Athena Award from the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce which recognizes professional women who demonstrate excellence, creativity and initiative in their business profession, who improve the quality of life for others in the community and who actively assist women in realizing their full leadership potential.

She earned a bachelor's degree in communication from Southern Methodist University and a master's degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

An accomplished and respected advancement leader with nearly 30 years of experience, Armin Afsahi began serving as Vice President for Alumni Relations and Development at The University of Chicago in April 2023. In this role, he leads the University’s strategy, direction, and organization for development, alumni relations, and campaign planning. He works closely with UChicago’s president, provost, deans, officers, and board of trustees to advance the University’s mission through the intellectual, social, professional, and philanthropic engagement of the University community.

Afsahi brings a wide range of expertise in institutional advancement, strategic management, business development, leadership, and operations. Prior to joining UChicago, he held senior roles in advancement at multiple universities including the University of Denver, UC San Diego, Georgetown University, and Harvard University, respectively. He is a member of the board of directors for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), serving on the Leadership and Governance and Finance and Investment commitees. He is a recipient of of the CASE Crystal Apple Award for Teaching Excellence.

Afsahi holds a BA in communications from UC San Diego and an MBA from the University of San Diego.

Skylar Beaver is the Assistant Director of Advancement at The Lawrenceville School, where she spearheads annual giving campaigns and oversees alumni and family engagement, donor relations, stewardship, and advancement services. With a strong global perspective, she also leads international fundraising initiatives. Her extensive experience spans 16 years in the development field, including leadership roles at The Spence School, Washington and Lee University, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

A respected voice in the industry, Skylar is a frequent presenter with CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education), a past chair of STAFF (Sharing the Annual Fund Fundamentals), and chairs NEAGC (Northeast Annual Giving Conference). Her exceptional contributions have earned her accolades, including the 2023 Diane Thompson Award for Excellence in Annual Giving from NEAGC, a CASE Crystal Apple Award for outstanding speaking, and the distinguished CASE Laureate honor.

Skylar holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and a Master's in Nonprofit Management from SUNY Brockport.

Lishelle Blakemore is the associate vice chancellor at UC Berkeley and vice president of the UC Berkeley Foundation, where she has worked since 1994 in various leadership capacities. She oversees university alumni relations, annual programs, external relations, foundation relations, gift planning, international relations, major gifts, marketing and communications, and student experience and diversity programs. Considered a “builder” of new programs, she designed and established the university’s first comprehensive annual and individual giving department. She has been a part of the campaign management team for the $1.44B "Campaign for the New Century," the $3.13B "Campaign for Berkeley" and the Light the Way Campaign launching in 2020.

Prior to joining Cal, Blakemore served as assistant vice president for The Pacific Group where she provided consulting and fundraising services for universities throughout the country, including UC Davis, UCLA, UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, California State University Fullerton, Texas A&M University, the University of Arizona, and Arizona State University.

In November 2020, William Christopher "Chris" Clarke was named associate vice president for Duke Campaigns where he is responsible for planning the institution’s next comprehensive fundraising campaign as well as designing a complimentary initiative aimed at quantifying volunteer engagement across the institution. Prior to his current role  he served as Duke’s senior assistant vice president for Trinity College and The Graduate School. Clarke assumed this role in 2016 and in that capacity led a program that represents 80 percent of Duke’s alumni and generates $75-80M per year in private support for the institution. In 2012, as the associate dean of development for the Pratt School, Clarke planned and led engineering’s Duke Forward Campaign which surpassed its goal of $161.5M by nearly $40M one-year prior to the close of Duke Forward.

Before coming to Duke in 2004, Clarke was the director of development and leadership gifts for Purdue University's School of Mechanical Engineering (its flagship program) where he led their $125M campaign. Prior to his role in mechanical engineering, Clarke served Purdue as its associate director of planned giving from 1997 to 2001, when he became the associate director of development for major gifts. In addition to his major gift responsibilities, he also served as the development liaison for Purdue's Black Cultural Center and as the Director of Alumni Outreach Programs for the Purdue Alumni Association. 

An active member of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) which is the professional organization for alumni engagement, communications and development, Clarke has served as the conference chair for both District V (Midwest States) in 2001, and District III (Southeastern States) in 2013. He chaired District III’s Cabinet from 2019-21 and was named in 2022 to CASE’s U.S./Canada Council. From 2016 – 2022 Clarke served on the faculty of CASE’s premier Summer Institute in Educational Fundraising, and in 2009 he was awarded CASE's Crystal Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Clarke holds a master's degree in higher education administration and bachelor’s degrees in psychology as well as sociology and criminology from Purdue University. 

Patricia (Trish) Jackson has close to 40 years of advancement experience at a wide variety of educational institutions and academic health centers. In June 2022 she will begin her tenure as the Chief Advancement Officer for Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts. She has also held senior leadership roles at The New School, Brown University and Smith, Wheaton and Mount Holyoke colleges. From 2015-18, she served as Interim Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations at the Medical Advancement Office for the Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth Health. She also served Dartmouth College as associate vice president for development and chief of staff for the advancement division.

Trish is an alumna of Scripps College, the women’s college in Claremont, CA, where she serves on the board. She has also served as a campaign consultant for Women Moving Millions, is on the board of Every Woman Treaty, and was on the council for the Women’s Philanthropic Institute at the Lilly School of Philanthropy in Indiana for over a decade. She and her academic neuroscientist husband, Will Millard, make their home in Norwich, Vermont

In August, 2021, Lacie LaRue was named as the assistant vice president of advancement strategies for University of Oregon Advancement. In this leadership role, she acts as a top strategist and creative leader for the UO Advancement program; overseeing several programs, playing a key role in campaign planning and spearheading UO Advancement’s Digital Transformation initiative. Her goal is to continually find sophisticated ways to utilize data and systems to improve the giving experience, identify the next generation of philanthropic leaders and optimize the work of Advancement.  

She has spent the last 20 years working in the world of higher education fundraising, with positions at the Oregon State University Foundation, University of Maryland, Portland State University and Iowa State University. She has also chaired several national CASE conferences, including the Senior Annual Giving, Multichannel Annual Giving, and Leadership Annual Giving Conferences, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy recognized her contributions to nonprofit leadership in their “40 Under 40” list in 2016.

LaRue holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Iowa State University, a master’s degree in organization leadership from Colorado State University and a certification in Digital Transformation Strategies from Cambridge Judge Business School.

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.