Faculty
Lorna Somers
An accomplished and successful fundraiser, Lorna spent the past 35 years at McMaster University where she has been engaged in securing some of the largest charitable gifts in Canadian history. She led two university-wide, comprehensive campaigns, both with a focus on volunteer and academic participation. She has also structured and led targeted campaigns for McMaster's Museum of Art and Faculty of Health Sciences, the University's Student Centre, and secured support for numerous endowments establishing scholarships, bursaries, chairs, and professorships. An accomplished and successful fundraiser, Lorna spent the past 35 years at McMaster University where she has been engaged in securing some of the largest charitable gifts in Canadian history. She led two university-wide, comprehensive campaigns, both with a focus on volunteer and academic participation. She has also structured and led targeted campaigns for McMaster's Museum of Art and Faculty of Health Sciences, the University's Student Centre, and secured support for numerous endowments establishing scholarships, bursaries, chairs, and professorships.
An internationally recognized teacher and facilitator in the fields of Higher Education and Institutional Advancement, Lorna has shared her expertise with educational, cultural and charitable organizations around the world. She is the recipient of numerous international awards for excellence in teaching and leadership, and is a sought-after speaker and coach on business, social and dining etiquette, frequently working with students to improve their confidence and knowledge as they launch their careers.
Lorna's volunteer leadership has been extensive and global with a three-decade commitment to the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE), the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and the Canadian Association of Gift Planners (CAGP). Her contributions have included various volunteer roles as national and regional chair, conference chair, Board Trustee, Director, special advisor, and CASE Laureate.
Andrew C. Boynton
As Dean of Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, Andy Boynton collaborates with a talented group of colleagues to create a management school that excels in teaching and research. The Carroll School faculty and staff are committed to transforming students to become ethical and effective leaders. The faculty is comprised of scholarly leaders across all disciplines whose work is published in leading academic and practitioner publications.
In addition to leading the Carroll School, Dean Boynton lends his expertise to a number of University projects that cross boundaries at Boston College. He recently co-chaired a committee of deans, faculty, and university administrators to renew and revitalize the undergraduate core curriculum. He also works with departments at Boston College outside of the Carroll School, leading workshops to help shape their visions and innovative strategies.
His blog on leadership and innovation is a regular feature on Forbes.com, and his latest and acclaimed book, The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas and Make them Happen (Jossey-Bass), focuses on making innovation a key leadership skill and providing motivation and guidelines to unleash every leader and knowledge professional’s creative capability.
Prior to joining Boston College, Dean Boynton was a professor of strategy at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland for over 10 years. At the IMD, he led a faculty team and was program director of one of the world’s top ten Executive Global MBA programs, as recognized by Businessweek. He has also served on the MBA faculty at the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.
Michael Bumbry
Michael Bumbry has 12 years of experience in higher education administration including a career in both student affairs and advancement. He currently serves as the director of development at the Kogod School of Business at American University (AU). He is a major gift fundraiser focused on cultivating relationships with existing and potential donors resulting in solicitations and closure of gifts at $100K and above. He 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 American, Bumbry serves as the fundraising and stewardship chair for the American College Personnel Association- College Student Educators International (ACPA) Foundation Board, co-chair of AU’s inclusive excellence committee for the development and alumni relations division, and is a member of the Elon University Leads Regional Campaign Committee in Washington, DC. He also recently served as a faculty for the CASE Advancement Institute.
Bumbry holds a bachelor's degree in broadcast communications from Elon University, a master's degree in higher education administration from North Carolina State University, and a doctorate in higher education administration from Loyola University Chicago.
Renee DeCesare
Renee DeCesare provides oversight and strategic direction of the development functions for the School Development team, a unit of eight that advances Boston College's academic priorities. This includes the Carroll School of Management, the Connell School of Nursing, the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Social Work, the School of Theology and Ministry, and the Woods College of Advancing studies as well as a number of other strategic initiatives and centers.
DeCesare joined Boston College in September 2002 as a development assistant for the principal giving team and since that time has been promoted to multiple roles in both development and alumni relations. In 2008, she became the senior associate director of affinity programs, a unit of seven that provided strategic oversight for all of the alumni affinity councils and programs including the two largest fundraising events – Pops on the Heights: The James and Barbara Cleary Scholarship Gala and the Wall Street Council Tribute Dinner.
DeCesare joined the school development team as an associate director of the Carroll School of Management in 2013. She was promoted to director of development of the Carroll School of Management in 2017.
DeCesare came to Boston College after serving as a Teacher's Aide in early childhood education in the Randolph, Brookline, and Dedham Public School systems.
DeCesare earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Early Childhood Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She also earned her Master in Education in Curriculum and Instruction from the Lynch School of Education and Human Development while working at Boston College.
She currently resides in Norwood, Massachusetts with her husband and young son.
Maureen MacDonald
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.
Michael Morsberger
Mike Morsberger is an accomplished advancement professional with 30 years of experience in nonprofit fundraising and development. In June of 2015, he joined the University of Central Florida as the vice president for advancement and CEO of the UCF Foundation. He arrived at a pivotal time in the silent phase of their comprehensive campaign, and was asked to reorganize and rejuvenate both the advancement team and campaign strategy to substantially accelerate fundraising capacity. The $500 million "IGNITE Campaign" launched publicly in September, 2016, with more than $265M in private support raised. After back to back record-breaking years, the campaign now is poised to successfully conclude in June of 2019.
Morsberger started his career in Baltimore, Maryland, with several smaller charitable institutions including the Maryland Special Olympics, The National Aquarium in Baltimore, Calvert Hall College Prep, and Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital. In 1995, he joined the major gifts team at Johns Hopkins Medicine, and over the course of the next decade, worked his way up to executive director of the Oncology Development. In 2001, he was privileged to be the lead staff member involved with securing the largest (then) gift in Johns Hopkins’ history, when philanthropist Sidney Kimmel committed $150M to rename their renowned Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Following his tenure at Johns Hopkins Medicine, he moved on to become associate vice president of development and alumni relations for the University of Virginia Health System, and also executive director of the UVA Health Foundation. He then transitioned into the role of vice president of development and alumni relations at Duke Medicine for four years, before heading to Washington D.C. to become vice president of development and alumni relations at the George Washington University. During his five years at GW, he oversaw the planning and launch of their $1 billion "Making History" campaign, and helped to secure the two biggest gifts in university history ($50M and $30M).
Morsberger is a respected leader in the advancement field, having served on two dozen nonprofit boards, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Florida and the Harry P. Leu Gardens; and as a frequent guest speaker at national and international conferences on the topic of fund raising and philanthropy.
He received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Radford University and his master’s degree in the study of philanthropy and development at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.
Sarah Pearson
Sarah Pearson has been in the advancement profession since 1980. She is currently the vice president for college advancement at Bates College.
Previously, she served as the chief development officer for the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she was responsible for fundraising for one of the world's leading biomedical research institutes. Prior to her arrival at the Broad, Pearson served as vice president for alumni relations and development at Northwestern University. There she managed a team of 175 staff, servicing six undergraduate schools, the graduate school programs, a Big Ten athletics organization, and the university's museum and library.
Pearson began her development career in 1980 at Harvard University. She then served as director of the Cornell Fund during Cornell's $1.5 billion campaign. Moving on to the University of Chicago, she served as associate vice president of development and alumni relations and campaign director during the launch of the university's successful $2.3 billion campaign.
Pearson served as a member of the CASE Board of Trustees and as chair of the Philanthropy Commission. She was a faculty member and then served as chair of the CASE Summer Institute on Educational Fundraising. She served as chair of the 2007 CASE Summit for Advancement Leaders, as conference chair for the CASE conference on campaign strategies, and as a member of the faculty for nurturing major gift fundraising. She received the CASE Crystal Apple for teaching excellence in 2008.
Pearson received her bachelor's degree from Bates College and her master's of fine arts degree in theater arts from Brandeis University.
Nora Sheffe
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.
Fritz W. Schroeder
Fritz Schroeder became Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations in October 2012 and has served Johns Hopkins for more than 25 years in a series of senior management roles.
He provides leadership and oversight for all fundraising and alumni efforts of the university and Johns Hopkins Medicine, and serves as the institution’s chief fundraising officer. He was responsible for planning and executing the recently concluded Rising to the Challenge campaign, which received more than $6 billion in commitments.
Schroeder joined Johns Hopkins in 1996 as Director of Annual Giving and became Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relations in 2000. During this time he had responsibility for alumni outreach and for annual giving programs, serving as the Executive Director of the Alumni Association.
In 2004, Schroeder became Associate Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations, with a promotion to Senior Associate Vice President in 2006. He shared responsibility with deans and directors for the university’s decentralized fundraising operations in the schools and other units; provided leadership for centralized development support offices; and took the lead on strategic planning, budget planning and oversight, trustee stewardship, prospect strategy development, and general organizational issues.
Schroeder joined Johns Hopkins from the University of Maryland at College Park, where he had served since 1989 in a number of roles, including Director of Annual Giving from 1993 to 1996.
He is a frequent speaker and conference leader, serves as a trustee of CASE, and is the author of the 2000 book Annual Giving: A Practical Approach as well as several other fundraising chapters. In addition, he is currently leading an effort to develop a more consistent advancement curriculum through the work of a task force established by CASE in the fall of 2017.
Schroeder is a 1989 graduate of James Madison University. He earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1994.