Nevin Kessler is president of the Rutgers University Foundation, and executive vice president of development and alumni relations for Rutgers University. Under his leadership, Rutgers completed the university's first $1 billion comprehensive campaign.

Prior to joining Rutgers in October 2013, Nevin was the vice chancellor for university advancement at NC State University. He has also held leadership roles in development at the Yale School of Management, the University of Connecticut Foundation, Inc., and Virginia Tech.

Nevin has a bachelor's degree from Dickinson College and a master's degree in education from Bowling Green State University.

Fardin Sanai was appointed UAlbany’s Vice President for University Development and Executive Director of The University at Albany Foundation in fall 2007 with oversight of all fundraising and alumni affairs functions. In 2017, the division of media and marketing was placed under Fardin’s direction and at that time, he was appointed Vice President of University Advancement. As Executive Director of the Foundation, Fardin serves as the liaison to the Foundation board and oversees foundation operations including, investments, real estate and governance. 

Prior to his tenure at UAlbany, Fardin served as Senior Vice President for Development and Foundation Operations at Albany Medical Center, where he oversaw fundraising for both the college and hospital. Before that, Fardin served as Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Executive Director of the Foundation at SUNY Cobleskill where he created and expanded the college’s fundraising and development operations. He began his fundraising career at Albany Law School and spent two years as a fundraising consultant for Morin & Anderson, Inc.

Under his leadership, UAlbany was a 2012 recipient of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE’s) Circle of Excellence Awards Program for Educational Fundraising for overall improvement. Fardin received the same award at SUNY Cobleskill in 2003. He currently serves as the chair of SUNY’s Chief Advancement Officers and on the SUNY SAIL Institute faculty. Fardin is a board member of 15-Love, a local non-profit which creates, enhances and executes free educational programs for inner city youth. Additionally, Fardin serves on the University at Albany Biosciences Development Corporation (UABDC) and the University Auxiliary Services (UAS) boards.

Fardin holds a bachelor’s degree from Marist College.
 

Cassie Warman, a leader in educational advancement for more than 30 years, serves as vice president of university advancement at Pacific University in Oregon. Warman served as vice president for college advancement and executive director of the Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC) Foundation from 2009–2012 where she led the college's advancement efforts including fundraising, alumni relations, communications, and marketing as well as external and government relations.

She previously served as the vice president for university relations at Portland State University where she secured the largest private gift in PSU history, orchestrated the university's first comprehensive fundraising campaign that raised $114 million and led the university's first branding campaign. Prior to joining Portland State in 2004, she held advancement positions at Washington State University's Vancouver campus, the University of Portland and Eastside Catholic High School in Bellevue, Washington.

Warman has served on numerous boards and is the past chair of the CASE Board of Trustees. She has been honored with the CASE District VIII Distinguished Service Award as well as many other awards and honors.

Heather M. Young, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N. is a nurse leader, educator, scientist, and nationally recognized expert in gerontological nursing and rural health care, and is a professor and dean emerita at UC Davis. As founding dean and associate vice chancellor for nursing for UC Davis Health, she led the establishment of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing and stewarded the $100 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to launch this effort. Accomplishments include five new graduate programs in Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership, the design and construction of the 70,000-square-foot Betty Irene Moore Hall and the formation of a nursing science research program focused on healthy systems and healthy people.

Young researches healthy aging with a focus on the interface between individuals, family, and formal health care systems. She has received funding from more than a dozen foundations for research and program development. She co-leads the Healthy Aging in a Digital World initiative at UC Davis Health and co-directs the Family Caregiving Institute.

She is a UC Davis alumna, with a bachelor’s degree in dietetics. She holds an associate degree in nursing from Sacramento City College, a bachelor's degree in nursing from Southern Oregon State College, and a master's degree in nursing with a specialty in gerontology and a doctorate in nursing science from the University of Washington.

Mark Zupan became Alfred University’s 14th president in its 183-year history on July 1, 2016. During his tenure, he and his team have: created a five-year leadership giving society, the Saxon Circle, which now has nearly 500 members; established a Strategic Investment Fund with gifts from Board members and other key donors that allows the University to implement some of its strategic goals without adversely affecting the operating budget; and realized an average of over $21 million per year in new gifts and commitments, and are on track to top that this year.

A graduate of Harvard University with a degree in economics, President Zupan earned his Ph.D. degree, also in economics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He began his teaching career at Harvard University and then the University of Southern California (USC). He moved into administration as associate dean of masters programs at USC and then dean and professor of economics at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona.

Prior to coming to Alfred, he spent 10 years as dean of the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester, where he also served as director of the Bradley Policy Center and the Olin Professor of Economics and Public Policy. At Simon (with 13,000 alumni), Zupan spearheaded the first comprehensive campaign in the school’s history—one that ended up raising over $85 million over seven years and more than doubled the annual level of gifts and commitments to the school and added 10 new endowed professorships to a pre-existing base of 9. At the Eller College of Management (with 40,000) alumni, Zupan and his advancement team led a campaign that raised over $100 million in seven years, considerably surpassing the $13 million raised by the college’s previous campaign.