Faculty
Shanna Hocking
Shanna Hocking (Shanna rhymes with Donna) is the founder and CEO of Hocking Leadership, which helps universities and independent schools develop leaders, strengthen workplace culture, and advance fundraising. Prior, Shanna spent 20 years raising 6-, 7-, 8-, and 9-figure gifts and leading collaborative teams at organizations such as the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Alabama, and Duke University. Shanna is the author of One Bold Move a Day (November 2022, McGraw Hill), which was named "one of the 9 motivating books to start your 2024" by the Next Big Idea Club. Shanna's articles have been published on Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Fast Company, Chicago Tribune, The Muse, and Motherly. Her expertise has been featured in Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Harper's Bazaar UK, Entrepreneur, New York Post, Business Insider, and Today.com, among others. She has been seen on ABC, NBC, CBS, and Nexstar affiliate television stations across the country.
Armin Afsahi
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.
Theresa Davis
With more than 25 years of management and fundraising experience, Theresa Davis has a diverse background ranging from campaign management and major gifts, to corporate and foundation relations, annual giving, and alumni relations. She is currently the associate vice president of advancement at the University of Southern California. As chief advancement officer for the founding campus of the California State University system, Theresa has oversight of development, alumni and community engagement, advancement and campaign operations, campus special events, and the Tower Foundation of SJSU.
Prior to SJSU, Theresa was the assistant vice president of engagement and annual programs at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). She had responsibility for alumni relations, the Caltech Associates, and the Caltech Fund and Parents Program. The function of each of these areas is to advance public understanding, advocacy, and support for the institute by strategic engagement of its key constituencies.
Davis has also served as the associate vice president of college and program development at Cal State Fullerton, with responsibility for the directors of development who raise major gift-level funding in each of the campus' eight colleges and the athletics department. Additionally, she has been the associate vice president of major and planned gifts at Children's Hospital Los Angeles; campaign director for the California Science Center; senior director of development for the UCLA College; director of development for the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management at UC, Riverside, and associate director of corporate relations and also director of the Alumni Fund at Caltech.
Theresa has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Arizona State University and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Southern California.
Jenna Goodloe Wade
Jenna Goodloe Wade has worked at Rhodes College for more than 19 years. In 2005 she was named the vice president for development where she oversees all aspects of development including annual, major and planned giving, alumni relations, college events, athletic fundraising, community relations and advancement services. In this role she is completed a comprehensive capital campaign which has raised more than $314 million toward a $303.5 million goal.
During her time at Rhodes, she has worked in various capacities within the Development office. As the director of the annual fund she led the college to break records in dollars and participation—exceeding 50 percent alumni participation. Following her time as the director of annual giving, she became the director of development and later the associate vice president for development where her primary responsibilities included working closely with the president of the college, overseeing major and planned gifts, foundations and corporations as well as the annual fund. Most recently she planned and conducted the college's largest capital campaign.
Prior to joining Rhodes she worked in development and alumni affairs at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center within the medical school and as an executive director and director of development at the American Cancer Society.
She has served as a member of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District III Board of Directors since 2005, served on the CASE Philanthropy Commission, co-chaired the CASE III District Conference in 2006, and served as a faculty on several CASE development conferences. She received the CASE Crystal Apple in 2010 for top faculty ratings at ten CASE conferences. She currently serves on the CASE Liberal Arts College Advisory Committee.
Wade received her bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and her master's degree in education from Vanderbilt University.
Holly Wolk
Holly Wolk serves as the executive director for talent management and administration for the University of Rochester and oversees recruitment, employee engagement, professional development, and employee services for more than 250 advancement professionals. In this capacity, she works with senior leadership to develop and build the next generation of advancement professionals. Her focus and passion is on helping advancement professionals develop career paths that are beneficial to themselves and the organization. During Wolk's tenure, the University of Rochester has worked to redefine its recruitment strategy from focusing on external recruitment efforts to developing staff and promoting from within the organization.
Prior to coming to the University of Rochester, Wolk held similar talent management roles at Tufts University and Boston University, where she also managed the university's employment and training function. She began her career in alumni relations at Carnegie Mellon, before transitioning to Carnegie Mellon's organizational development and human capital management department.
She has a master's degree in human resource management from Carnegie Mellon and more than 18 years of advancement experience. She has served as a presenter and faculty at CASE previously, and enjoys sharing best practices with her talent management colleagues.