Dr. Justin Fincher currently serves as Interim Chief Deputy to the President and Senior Vice President for Government and Community Relations at Stony Brook University, a role he assumed in August 2024. In this capacity, he acts as the President’s strategic advisor on university priorities, providing counsel on reputation management, crisis prevention, and policy development. He also leads the university’s efforts in government and community relations, strengthening partnerships with civic, business, and elected leaders at all levels. Concurrently, Dr. Fincher remains Executive Director of the Stony Brook Foundation, overseeing its board and philanthropic stewardship.

Dr. Fincher joined Stony Brook in 2021 as Vice President for Advancement, where he led the university’s advancement strategies and fundraising initiatives, achieving record setting milestones. Under his leadership, Stony Brook secured a historic $500 million unrestricted endowment gift and $150 million in climate science funding for The Exchange initiative, enhancing the university’s financial position and impact.

Before his tenure at Stony Brook, Dr. Fincher held leadership roles at The Ohio State University, where he guided multibillion-dollar campaigns, engaged over a million donors, and cultivated significant philanthropic gifts for both academic and medical initiatives. He also served as Chief Operating Officer of the OSU Alumni Association, leading a team of 125 staff and spearheading innovative alumni engagement strategies.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Fincher held key roles at Rutgers University and Johns Hopkins University, where he developed pioneering programs in philanthropy education and donor engagement. His leadership extends to national service with the Council for Advancement

and Support of Education (CASE) and co-founding the Advancement Leadership Lab, a training initiative for senior advancement leaders.

A higher education leader with a Doctorate in Higher Education Administration and a Master of Arts in College Student Personnel, both from the University of Maryland, Dr. Fincher’s national quantitative research has focused on leadership development and sense of belonging across diverse populations. His research expertise includes applying advanced analytics to measure program impact and drive data-informed decision-making in higher education. A summa cum laude graduate of Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences, Dr. Fincher has taught and mentored emerging leaders in the field, contributing to their academic and professional growth

Amanda Hoskins is currently the director of advancement services and data architecture for the University Of Utah Health Office Of Advancement. She is on the Senior Leadership Team, which has been tasked with defining and implementing the strategy to raise $1B of the University of Utah's overall $2B goal for the current "Imagine New Heights" capital campaign. With this campaign, she is leading the transition of University of Utah Health's Advancement Operations to a new CRM to support her institution's ambitious data-driven goals and build a robust ecosystem for success.

In her current role, Hoskins manages and oversees Prospect Research, Management and Strategy, Analytics, Data Architecture, Corporations and Foundations Giving, Annual Giving, and Gift Processing for five health sciences colleges and all hospitals and clinics within the University of Utah system.

Prior to her current role, she held titles that have included development assistant, project coordinator, development officer, and director of prospect research within the University Of Utah Health Office Of Advancement. Her first role with the University of Utah dates back to 2010, when she worked for the alumni association. Her major career achievements have included building a Grateful Patient Fundraising Program, Provider Referral Program, and establishing a robust prospect research and prospect management team for the University Of Utah Health Office of Advancement.

Alison Sommers-Sayre has more than 20 years of experience in business intelligence, information management and data-driven strategic planning within higher education, corporate environments and consulting capacities. She has worked in fundraising for the last decade, with a focus on promoting the value of prospect development and analytics and is currently the assistant vice president for advancement at Princeton University.

She is responsible for managing administrative services, alumni and donor records, analytics and data management, development technology services, and prospect development and research. She also is charged with identifying and implementing industry best practices and innovative methods, as well as enhancing the overall effectiveness and productivity of the office.

Sommers-Sayre joined Princeton in 2004 as director of development research, a position in which she helped prepare the office for the $1.88 billion "Aspire" campaign completed in 2012 and built the analytics function. Since 2009, she has been the executive director of development information strategy. Prior to Princeton, she worked in business intelligence, information management and data-driven strategic planning in corporate environments and consulting firms.

She has been on the board of APRA, the international association representing prospect development professionals, since 2011, and currently serves as the organization's president. She has been a conference speaker for APRA, CASE, and the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She is an honors graduate of the University of Chicago, where she has been an active alumni volunteer.