RAISE Podcast

For more than two decades Becky Fullmer has been designing and driving organizational growth and performance improvement strategies, with much of her career spent in higher education philanthropy. She serves as the Associate Vice President for Advancement Operations at the University of Central Florida, where she leads the IT, Prospect Development, Records and Gifts, Donor Relations, and Operations teams. Prior to UCF, Becky was part of the team at the University of Cincinnati Foundation, serving as Assistant Vice President and Campaign Director. She also spent several wonderful years as part of the Advancement (Prospect Development) team at The Ohio State University. Her prior experience also includes work in non-profit compliance, administration, and communications.

Becky is a two-time graduate of The Ohio State University with an undergraduate degree in English and a graduate degree in Public Affairs. She is a life-long learner passionate about leadership, technology, the Oxford comma, and the power of philanthropy to transform lives.

Greg Willems has served as president and chief executive officer of the KSU Foundation since February of 2022.

Willems has held executive fundraising positions at the University of Hawai’i, University of British Columbia and Texas A&M. Prior to his development work, he worked in the corporate sector in the construction and insurance industries.

Most recently, Willems served as vice president of development for the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation, overseeing fundraising, campaigns and development operations. In that role he led them to record-breaking annual fundraising results and directed the planning and implementation for the next comprehensive, system-wide capital campaign for the University of Hawaii System. Prior to his position at the University of Hawaiʻi Foundation, Willems was the executive director of development at the University of British Columbia, where he served on the executive leadership team and helped launch a $1.5 billion campaign, the largest in Canadian history at the time.He also served as the senior director of development for the Texas A&M Foundation, where he provided leadership in the university’s successful $1.5 billion “One Spirit One Vision” campaign.

Willems earned a bachelor’s degree in management from Texas A&M University in 1988. He was named three times to Hawaii Business Magazine’s “Executives You Need To Know” list and served on the board of the Engineering Development Forum.

Kristin Sorenson is the Vice President of Development at the West Point Association of Graduates. She joined the WPAOG in November 2009. During her tenure, over $803M has been raised to support West Point’s Margin of Excellence and the Long Gray Line.

Her 30 years of development experience includes serving as the Senior Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations at The New School in New York City, the Associate Director of External Affairs and Director of Special Gifts at the Museum of Modern Art, the Director of International Capital Initiatives and Associate Director of University Campaign Projects at Harvard University and the Executive Director of the Simon Bolivar Foundation.

Kristin has also worked as a fundraising consultant for The United Nations Foundation, The Americas Society and the Council of the Americas and has taught fundraising essentials at Columbia University. She has served as a volunteer on numerous non-profit boards and councils over the years including The Horizons Initiative, The International Institute of Boston, The Fogg Art Museum, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Manitoga: The Russel Wright Design Center, The Hudson Highlands Land Trust, The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, the Garrison Children’s Education Fund and The Desmond Fish Library.

Kristin speaks French and Spanish and has lived in Switzerland, France, Spain, and the Philippines. She has also traveled extensively throughout Latin America and Europe. She holds a 1984 BA in Comparative Religion from Kenyon College.

Steve Rosfeld is Vice President for Development at the University of Cincinnati Foundation. In this role, he leads fundraising efforts of 10 main campus colleges and units, and Bearcats athletics. Additionally, Steve leads the central development team that services the University of Cincinnati and UC Health through specialties involving donor relations, national development, gift planning, corporate relations, and foundation relations. He also carried strategic leadership responsibilities for the comprehensive Next/Now campaign during the early planning, launch, and implementation phases. As a student at the University of Cincinnati, Rosfeld was an intern for the UC Foundation and ultimately joined the organization in 2006 as an alumni relations professional for the UC Alumni Association. He has assumed additional responsibilities over the years including, most recently, serving as the Executive Director of Development for the Carl H. Lindner College of Business. With 20 years of professional experience, Rosfeld previously served in a variety of capacities for several local, state, and national political campaigns.

Michael Reza is an established leader that believes higher education can transform the lives of individuals, communities, and society. This belief drives his passion for the work that we do as Advancement professionals. Michael currently serves as the Associate Vice President, Portland Development & Alumni Engagement at the University of Oregon. He leads the Portland, OR regional advancement strategy and serves on the UO Advancement senior leadership team. Portland is home to the largest concentration of UO donors and alumni, as well as a regional UO Portland campus. He works closely with academic leadership, maintains a portfolio of donor prospects, and takes a prominent role in representing the university in the Portland community.

Michael has more than 17 years of experience in higher education advancement at large public and small private institutions. Prior to the UO, he served as Vice President for Advancement at George Fox University where he led a team that included development, alumni relations and grants. While there, GFU doubled their fundraising in three years and launched a campaign. Michael has experience in advancement from his time in progressive roles at the University of Arizona, UC Irvine and Oregon State University. He is an active volunteer with CASE and serves as immediate past chair of the CASE District VIII Cabinet.

Bernard “B.J.” Davisson is executive vice president for development and chief development officer at the West Virginia University Foundation where he oversees all facets of private fundraising. This includes having led the closing years of the Foundation’s historic and successful $1.2 billion “State of Minds” comprehensive campaign.

A senior executive with over 30 years of experience in both higher education and healthcare fundraising, including nearly a decade of work at the prestigious John Hopkins University, Davisson began work at WVU in April 2015.

Prior to his current position, he was the senior associate vice president for development and alumni relations at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he worked closely with institutional leaders, key volunteers, and a large and diverse development staff in securing significant gifts.

A native of Westernport, Md., Davisson earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Frostburg State University and a master’s degree in higher education administration from The Ohio State University.

With more than 25 years of fundraising experience, Cheryl Crounse has a passion for high-impact work in higher education and is driven by the opportunities that philanthropy can provide to advance excellence in support of equitable student success. She was appointed as vice president of advancement of Salem State University and executive director of the University’s in 2019. In her current role, Cheryl is responsible for strategically advancing the fundraising priorities, overseeing nearly $60 million in assets in the Salem State University Foundation, Inc. and works with a 22-member Board of Directors who partner with the university to actively steward and invest the contributed private funds.

Under her leadership, the university launched the largest campaign in Massachusetts State University history in May of 2023, set to raise $75 million. Hired by the university in 2011, Cheryl led its first-ever comprehensive campaign which exceeded its goal by raising $26.5 million and doubled the revenue distributed to the university in support of scholarships, on-campus programming and unrestricted support. Nearly 12,000 passionate donors supported the campaign priorities. She previously served as campaign manager, assistant vice president and associate vice president with increasing roles and responsibilities within advancement.

As a first-generation, Pell-eligible, public higher education student studying business at Oswego State University, she learned the fundamentals of fundraising as a student employee calling alumni for her alma mater. Prior to joining Salem State, Cheryl directed leadership giving, annual giving, pre-campaign assessment planning and advancement operations at Emerson College. She spent the early part of her career shaping and significantly growing annual giving programs at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Cheryl is engaged in her community including serving on the Board of Lynn Museum/Arts, as a Board of Director at St. Jean’s Credit Union and started a scholarship at her alma mater. She enjoys all kinds of travel including spending quality time with her family in West Valley, a rural community south of Buffalo, NY.

Scott Roberts holds an associate’s degree from Missouri State University–West Plains, a bachelor’s from the College of the Ozarks, and a master’s in public administration from the University of Nevada–Las Vegas. After college he played professional basketball in Germany and Sweden for two years.

Roberts first entered the world of fundraising as a district executive for the Boy Scouts of America. He loved the job and seeing how he could positively impact others. Two years later, a volunteer urged him to apply for a job as director of major gifts at Pittsburg State University in Kansas, where he found his real passion. He served as director of university development at Pittsburg State University where he directed a $120 million comprehensive capital campaign.

From there, he spent nine years at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) first as associate vice president and then promoted internally to vice president for philanthropy and alumni engagement/President of the UNLV Foundation, which he led to annual fundraising records in both 2017 and 2018 with an all time high of $93 million. During his tenure, UNLV raised more than $500 million and saw a 56 percent increase in the number of gifts and a 51 percent increase in donors.

In 2019, Roberts served as President and CEO of the University of Connecticut Foundation, also setting all time fundraising records in 2020 and 2021. In this capacity he oversaw a team of 160 staff and an operating budget of nearly $25 million.

Roberts joined the Oklahoma State University foundation as the vice president of development in 2021. In his current capacity he oversees nearly 100 staff responsible for fundraising, marketing/communications, donor relations and prospect development. OSUF raised $208 million in FY22 and began the planning phase of the next campaign.

Throughout his career, Roberts has been involved with numerous nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. He served on the Blackbaud Higher Education Executive Advisory Board and the Board of Directors for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Foundation. He has also sat on the CASE District VII Board of Directors and is a member of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

A Brooklyn, New York native, Dr. Kirk A. Nooks was appointed to serve as the President of Gordon State College effective June 1, 2018. His career spans both the private and public sector which leverages over 25 years of education and engineering experience. Before transitioning to a career in higher education, Nooks worked as an engineering project manager at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center and as an account executive with a health benefits consulting company.

As President of Gordon State, Nooks is responsible for a campus of over 3,000 students which has a mission of being a catalyst for exceptional and accessible education, and a vision to elevate the region’s economic prosperity.

Nooks serves on national and local boards to include The Chair Academy and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. He has been recognized with several awards to include making the Georgia Trend’s Top 500 Influential Leaders list in 2022. As an author and presenter, he continues to stay active on topics that include college and university leadership, strategic planning and the learning college.

Dr. Nooks holds a doctorate in higher education administration from George Washington University (Washington, D.C.) and an MBA in marketing and a bachelor of science in industrial management from Mercer University (Macon, Ga.). He is a graduate of the Thomas Lakin Institute for Mentored Leadership and a member of the inaugural cohort of the American Council on Education’s Spectrum Leadership Institute.

Nooks is a first-generation college student and graduate. He believes that when institutions put students at the heart of its work, the institution can accomplish anything.

Dr. Kirk A. Nooks and his wife Alison reside in Forsyth, GA with their three children.

At the end of May, Dr. Nooks will continue his commitment to bridging the gap between high school students and the growing number of unfilled jobs through affordable, accessible, life-changing educational pathways by serving as as President and CEO of the Council on Occupational Education.

It's a fascinating story. Tune in!