Jamiella Brooks is an Associate Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Pennsylvania. Her primary work at CTL focuses on programming and support for equitable and inclusive teaching practices. Jamiella earned her Ph.D. in French Literature at University of California, Davis, and her B.A. in English at Oberlin College. She has served as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant in France and participated in the McNair Scholarship and Mellon Fellows programs. Her teaching and research interests include sociolinguistics, language and power, discourse analysis, and anticolonial pedagogies, and she has presented on codeswitching and linguistic equity. Her current project involves analyzing pedagogical practices of settler colonial education that persist in present-day teaching practices. Prior to coming to Penn, Jamiella served as founding director of the Teaching Assistant Program at Berea College. She is the author of several articles on navigating college, including “Dissertating While Parenting: Not a Contradiction” and “Tackling the Academy: Practical Advice for Navigating the Culture.” She has an article in the 2020 second edition of Presumed Incompetent: Race, Class, Power, and Resistance of Women in Academia.
In his current capacity, William teaches graduate courses in Organization Development and Change and oversees Ph.D. dissertations in Workforce Development. Among his recent books are Workforce Development: Guidelines for Community College Professionals (2020), Increasing Learning & Development’s Impact Through Accreditation: How to Drive-Up Training Quality, Employee Satisfaction and ROI in Workplace Learning and Development (2020), and Community College Leaders on Workforce Development (2017). Before arriving at Penn State in 1993, William had nearly 20 years of work experience in human resource management in business and in government.
Karalee has been working in the world of annual giving for over seven years and has experience with a magnitude of annual giving initiatives. Some of these areas include giving days, crowdfunding, phonathon, student philanthropy and senior campaigns, acquisition and prospecting, portfolio management and pipeline qualification, foundation setting with advancement services, and mass marketing, including direct mail, email, and digital. Prior to coming to the Catholic University of America, where she has served as the Director of Annual Giving for the last two years, she led annual giving marketing at Georgetown University. During her time at Georgetown, she also completed her masters in Integrated Marketing Communications.
In this role, Daniel serves as MSU’s chief international development officer and oversees the Office of International Advancement in its efforts to grow alumni, corporate, foundation, and donor support for MSU’s international initiatives. He is a seasoned higher education administrator with leadership experience in institutional advancement, international relations, enrollment management, and student development. Daniel received his bachelor’s degree from Eastern Michigan University, master’s degree from Michigan State University, and doctoral degree from Eastern Michigan University in Educational Leadership.
Dr. Chris Haskell plays video games for a living, or at least that’s what his friends think. He’s the director of Varsity Esports at Boise State. As a professor and researcher, Chris also focuses on the impact of video games, virtual worlds, social media, and digital culture. Chris teaches classes in Minecraft and World of Warcraft. He created a course about Facebook, Youtube, and memes. He even has retro 80’s arcade games in his office… for research of course. When it comes to work, Dr. Haskell is serious about play.
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.
