Heather leads the fundraising team for the Department of Neurology and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins Medicine. As a senior member of the development and alumni relations team, she works closely with the Chair of the Department, overseeing all aspects of fundraising including annual, major and principal gifts, stewardship, communications, event planning and alumni relations. At Johns Hopkins, Heather and her team have raised more than $275M for education, research, and patient care. She attributes the team’s success to their commitment to building relationships with donors, always centered on trust and compassion. Before joining Johns Hopkins Medicine, Heather worked in a number of fundraising roles, first at Washington College, and then at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. At both institutions, she worked closely with senior leadership and alumni supporters to raise philanthropic support, resulting in successful comprehensive campaigns. Heather’s experience partnering with alumni of both undergraduate and graduate institutions—along with her current work with grateful patients—gives her a unique perspective about the importance of listening to, understanding and articulating donor motivations. During her years in private law practice, Heather was an attorney focused on commercial litigation and estate planning and administration. Heather has a B.A. in English […]
Specializing in higher-education fundraising, Dhiraj lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he is the Deputy Chief Philanthropy Officer for Principal Gifts at the University of Utah. In this role, he sits on the advancement leadership team and works to generate philanthropic support for health sciences, academic initiatives, donor relations, student programs, research activities, and presidential initiatives. With over 14 years of experience in higher-education leadership, major gift fundraising, campaign planning and strategy, corporate and foundation relations, board development, and communications, Dhiraj helps benefactors to be a force for good in the community. He is passionate about anti-racism and DEIB and actively contributes to solutions-based collaborations that ensure that all students have access to and through higher education. Prior to his current role, Dhiraj worked with a range of diverse student programs within the offices of Student Affairs and Diversity/Equity/Inclusion. In his spare time, he enjoys going to the Sundance Film Festival, participating in community activism, attending live theatre, and serving on several Utah non-profit boards. He is currently the board chair for the Rape Recovery Center, a non-profit dedicated to empowering those victimized by sexual violence and providing education in the community. Dhiraj often consults with non-profit organizations to […]
Brenda J. Allen retired in April 2019 as the Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion and Professor of Communication at the University of Colorado Denver and the Anschutz Medical Campus. During almost 30 years in the University of Colorado system, Professor Allen developed a track record for scholarship, teaching, service, mentorship, and training related to organizational communication, social identity, and leadership, with an emphasis on higher education. Dr. Allen was recruited from Howard University to the University of Colorado Boulder in 1989 as an Assistant Professor of Communication. After earning tenure and promotion, she moved to CU Denver, where she was promoted to Professor. There, she served in various leadership roles, including Chair of the Department of Communication, Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Master Mentor at CU Denver. In 2012, she became Chief Diversity Officer for CU Denver and CU Anschutz. Among Dr. Allen’s numerous publications is a groundbreaking book entitled Difference Matters: Communicating Social Identity, which she conceptualized based on her experiences with students and colleagues at CU Boulder. One of her retirement projects is to write the third edition of this book. She is currently developing a global online course on inclusive […]
Bringing a wide range of experience in various areas of the music industry, Dr. Wade Weast became Dean of the College of the Arts at Georgia State University on July 1, 2016. Prior to his arrival at Georgia State University, he was Dean of the School of Music at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Director of the School of Music at the University of South Florida. He holds a doctorate from Stony Brook University with additional study at the Manhattan School of Music, SUNY Fredonia, and Tanglewood Institute. Wade has performed with the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, American Symphony Orchestra, New Haven Symphony, on Broadway, and with the rock group YES. Wade can be heard on ten recordings for labels such as Delos and Newport Classics and has produced eight recordings for the International Trumpet Guild.
Parks has spent over 10 years working in higher education including experience with strategic enrollment management, alumni relations, development, and career services. His driving passion in his current work is building relationships and finding opportunities to get alumni involved with their alma mater in the most meaningful way possible. He currently serves as the Director of Strategic Operations in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Office of Alumni Relations. He is primarily charged with serving as the primary conduit between alumni relations and VCU programs, schools, and units that intersects with alumni in order to increase effectiveness and economies of scale. This includes work in developing volunteer strategies and infrastructure for VCU’s 200,000 alumni, creating and maintaining the University’s alumni engagement metrics system, and developing systems to support alumni recruitment, training, development, and stewardship across the university. Parks attended Longwood University where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in organizational and strategic communication in 2008. He served as Director of Alumni Relations for alma mater prior to joining the team at VCU. Before returning to his alma mater, he spent five years at Royall & Company, now EAB, helping colleges and universities across the country achieve their strategic enrollment goals.
Clarybel has over 20 years in higher education administration. She is an expert in setting strategy, leadership development, and implementation and administration of diversity and inclusion initiatives. She has designed and delivered trainings related to inclusion, unconscious bias, cultural competence, and microaggressions and has extensive experience in organizational culture and change management. In her current position at Duke University, Clarybel is responsible for volunteer engagement of over 16,000 alumni which includes creating and developing processes and procedures with the goal of improving efficiency and the overall experience. She focuses on recruitment and retention efforts that include coordinating strategy, identifying trends, and data analytics. She is responsible for curriculum development and integrating leadership development by facilitating onboarding initiatives, trainings, and opportunities for understanding organizational culture and history. She serves as the primary staff contact for our Board of Directors and is responsible for the development of the onboarding/offboarding experience. She also serves on the Awards and Recognition Committee and the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion and coordinates all high-level logistics for the three board meetings annually. Clarybel earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse University and also holds a Masters in Higher Education […]
Tyrell Warren-Burnett has served as the Senior Director of Annual Giving at the Oregon State University Foundation since August 2017. At the OSU Foundation, he provides strategic execution and management of a comprehensive annual giving program focused on acquisition and pipeline development. Prior to this, Tyrell worked at the Washington State University Foundation where he led Annual Giving for three years. He also served as Strategic Marketing and Direct Mail Coordinator for annual giving at WSU, after working for several years in sales and marketing. His marketing experience has allowed him to take a unique approach to annual giving that helps to create innovative and forward-thinking strategies. Tyrell is a current member of the Case VIII District Cabinet serving in the role of the Chair-elect. One of his passions within the fundraising industry has been helping increase diversity within the profession as well as building community amongst its diverse fundraising professionals. Tyrell holds a BS from Michigan State University and an MBA from Ashford University.
I help my clients improve their personal effectiveness so that they can achieve the success they want in their career and leadership journeys. Jennifer Askey is an individual and group academic coach with over 25 years of experience in higher education in the U.S. and Canada. Her career has included work experience all over the academic map as support staff, sessional/adjunct lecturer, tenure-track faculty, tenured faculty, and professional administrative staff. As a coach, she helps her clients achieve clarity around the impact they want to have as an academic and the habits they need to develop to reach their goals. As a PCC certified coach through ICF, Jennifer enjoys leveraging assessments (e.g., DISC, Emotional Intelligence, Belbin Team Roles, etc.) for faculty clients to boost their self-awareness around key workplace behaviors and motivators. In her service of helping faculty members create their dream careers and jobs, she focuses on celebrating self-awareness and using that awareness as a jumping off point for exploration, innovation, and decisive action. A core of her coaching philosophy is to help clients establish patterns of noticing and recognition around self-sabotaging behaviors and to choose more resonant and empowering options. Writing productivity can be a key stressor for faculty […]
Dr. Smita Ruzicka serves as Dean of Student Life at Johns Hopkins University, where she provides leadership for a wide portfolio of services and programs aimed to enhance the overall student experience. Her portfolio includes student leadership and involvement, diversity and inclusion, health and wellness, residential life, crisis management and support services. She has over 15 years of experience in higher education, having served in leadership roles at Tulane University and The University of Texas at Austin prior to arriving to JHU in 2018. Dean Ruzicka earned her BA in psychology and English from Trinity University (TX), an MA in counseling psychology from Texas State University, and a PhD in Higher Education Administration from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Ruzicka has also had experience in the classroom and has taught courses in the areas of diversity and inclusion as well as course focused on leadership theories and practice. Her research interests include South Asian American students as well as issues impacting the experiences of Asian Americans. She has also served on a number of professional and community organization boards including the YWCA of Greater Austin and the Indian American Coalition of Central Texas. Outside of her work, Dean […]
Romando brings a strong portfolio of experience that helps him succeed in leading division and institutional initiatives around student success for an increasingly diverse student body. He was previously the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs at San Jose State University and has held associate dean and director positions in student affairs at the University of Southern California, Loyola University, Seattle University and Santa Clara University.
