Elevate Philanthropy ™
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Our People

Nicole Antil

Chief Strategy Officer
With boundless creativity, strong business acumen, and strategic thinking, Nicole pilots creative efforts to achieve organizational goals and develops innovative concepts that further corporate identity. Distilling large amounts of information into salient communications, Nicole translates abstract corporate visions into tangible, recognizable brand messages and actionable strategies that support business goals.

Ann Armater

Senior Associate
Ann Armater brings four decades of diverse development experience to her clients.

Meg Bailey

Vice President
An expert and noted speaker in major gifts, planned giving, and metrics management, Meg leads high-capacity prospect strategy, grateful patient programming, clinician engagement, and alumni and parent fundraising.

Breanna Bork

Senior Consultant
Breanna Bork is a creative, collaborative, and results-driven visionary leader providing expertise in donor cultivation, major gift solicitation strategies, foundation board development, asset management, constituent stewardship, and volunteer leadership. She is a trusted business partner, effective listener, and problem- solver known for building relationships with internal and external partners at all levels and disciplines to enhance philanthropic support. Breanna excels in strategic planning, donor passion and mission alignment pairing, and building/coaching/directing cross- functional teams to enhance community impact in healthcare, higher education, and the nonprofit radio sectors.

Amy Buick

Vice President
Noted for her proven track record in major gift development, annual giving, alumni and donor relations, capital campaigns, and development operations, Amy was the driving force behind several strategic initiatives for Jefferson Health, including the creation of an Advisory Council for valued business leaders, major gift development for the Asplundh Cancer Pavilion capital campaign, and the assumption of all development operations for a major healthcare system acquisition.

Anne Carlson

Associate Consultant
A team builder, problem solver, and change agent who has served at the University of Chicago, Brown University, New Canaan Country School, St. Andrew’s School, and more, Anne has developed strategic plans, built advancement programs, and strengthened fundraising pipelines.

Tom Chaves

Senior Vice President
Thomas Chaves brings over 30 years of higher education information and technology leadership experience to his role at Graham-Pelton, where he excels in driving effective Advancement and Business Intelligence solutions for nonprofits. In addition to serving as Associate Vice President of Advancement Operations at Saint Joseph's University, Thomas holds a B.S. in Computer Science/Mathematics from Albright College and a graduate degree in Management/Business Administration from Penn State.

Phil Choi

Director of Marketing & Content
With over two decades of experience, Phil brings a wealth of marketing knowledge and expertise to his position at Graham-Pelton. Phil has been instrumental in shaping the marketing strategies of numerous organizations across various industries, including nonprofits. His passion for storytelling and creative content development has successfully elevated companies to communicate their missions to the world.

Anthony Colgan

Senior Consultant
Anthony Colgan has over a decade of fundraising experience, with a sound knowledge of major gifts, corporations, project management, volunteers, and prospect research.

Brian Crockett

Senior Vice President
Profoundly influential, appreciated for his strategic mind, and a tireless advocate for a comprehensive development operation, Brian imbues the mission of advancement in all dimensions of his leadership, most recently as the Chief Executive Officer of the Virginia Military Institute Foundation.

Alyssa Daigle

Account Strategy Coordinator

Matt DeCapua

Account Strategy Coordinator

Walt Edwards

President, Graham-Pelton Health
Strategic vision creator, trusted talent developer, and philanthropic industry builder, Walt Edwards is recognized as one of the nation’s leaders in fundraising coaching and training. Having served many of the top academic medical centers, colleges, and universities across the country, Walt is also the chief architect of Beyond Gratitude™, our signature grateful patient fundraising service.

David Flinchbaugh

Senior Vice President
David Flinchbaugh is an accomplished professional in the field of higher education advancement with a track record of strategic leadership and a commitment to fostering alumni relations and development.

Before joining Graham-Pelton, David most recently served as Associate Dean for Development at the University of Maryland's School of Social Work, where he elevated the school's fundraising efforts. He also worked across the University System of Maryland to expand alumni engagement leading to philanthropy. Prior to the University of Maryland, he served in development and alumni relations leadership roles at Johns Hopkins University and Bucknell University.

Tim France

Vice President
A seasoned professional who collaborates and builds relationships to accomplish fundraising goals, Tim France is a highly motivated, collaborative, and accomplished development executive with more than two decades of fundraising experience. His expertise includes building major gift programs through annual giving, corporate and foundation relations, alumni relations, and grateful patient programs. Tim possesses proven success in leading development teams, including strategic planning, proposal development and gift closure, recruiting, mentoring, measuring progress through metrics, and reaching and exceeding team and organizational goals.

David Greig

Senior Consultant
With extensive experience in education and foundation sectors, David excels in strategy, prospect development, and stewardship. With an insightful approach, David creates and implements annual plans, manages major gifts portfolios, leads database optimization, and trains and empowers boards to achieve fundraising leadership.

Anthony Heaven, Ph.D.

Vice President, Higher Education Practice Group Leader
A higher education scholar-practitioner, Dr. Anthony Heaven specializes in advancement and diversity/inclusion work. Recognized by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education as a District III Faculty Star, his dissertation focused on the experiences of African American frontline gift officers at predominately White institutions received the Dissertation of the Year Award from the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education. As a development strategist, Dr. Heaven has served a number of flagship state universities and has built a unit development operation.

Tamra Johnson

Associate Consultant
Tamra Johnson is an ardent and strategic philanthropic leader with more than a decade of professional experience working across public higher education institutions. Adept at utilizing research tools to promote and implement strategies to increase donor contributions, retention, and satisfaction, Tamra has demonstrated competency in donor relations, executive support, and administrative management.

Elizabeth Kennedy

Senior Consultant
Elizabeth has vast experience in fundraising and development operations. In her previous role, she served as the Assistant Director of Planned Giving at The Rockefeller University. There, she was part of the $1.17 billion Campaign for Transforming Biomedicine and was the chief content creator of the Living Legacies biannual planned giving publication. In addition, she managed longstanding relationships with various foundations and trusts through annual reports, briefing memos, program remarks, prospect plans and communications, and events.

Craig Leach

Founder
Throughout his tenure as a fundraising leader, Craig became keenly aware of the evolving demands of the fundraising industry – demands that required an evolved approach to fundraising counsel. He questioned his thinking:¬ “Does the world need another fundraising consulting firm?”

Hundreds of nonprofits across the globe would come to benefit from his well-considered answer to that question. Craig led Graham-Pelton to emerge as one of the nation’s premiere fundraising consulting firms serving the full spectrum of sector clients. Under his direction, Graham-Pelton has earned a reputation for offering clients maximum value by providing them with hands-on, accomplished professionals; diverse and innovative service models; and an extraordinary commitment to customer service.

Courtney Luzzi

Editor
With a sharp eye, flexible mindset, and fast pace, Courtney works with the entire spectrum of Graham-Pelton experts to deliver reports, presentations, and other materials to the clients they serve.

Jim Lyddy, Ph.D.

Senior Vice President
Jim provides senior executive-level leadership to healthcare and higher education institutions and has served as a trusted advisor to nonprofits across the entire philanthropic spectrum. Considered to have an unparalleled knowledge of philanthropy and network, Jim served as Department of Development Chair with Mayo Clinic and led the institution’s $1.25 billion five-year campaign.

Kevin Lynch

Chief Financial Officer
Process-minded and forward-looking with an eye for continuous improvement and opportunity, Kevin leads the financial activities of Graham-Pelton.

Yasaman (Yasi) Martin

Vice President
With a unique ability to observe an organization holistically, Yasi is able to offer innovative solutions and ask tough questions that otherwise wouldn't be considered internally. Throughout her fundraising career in education, social change, and healthcare sectors, Yasi has developed and implemented creative engagement solutions with an emphasis on measuring performance outcomes. She enhances nonprofits' systems to achieve their goals, whether she is building board capacity, creating prospect strategies, or improving staffing structures.

Rachael Masturzo

Vice President
With a background in independent schools, higher education, and social change, Rachael’s experience spans from restructuring development offices, creating and implementing development strategies, and crafting policies and procedures, to soliciting major and principal gifts and providing solicitation training and Board development.

Laura McGarry

Chief Talent Officer
Excited and driven by surprises, challenges, and the opportunity to approach each client engagement with a new perspective, Laura brings expertise in relationship building, communication, fundraising, and program management. Known for her collaborative approach to increasing engagement and giving among all constituencies, Laura is passionate about harnessing philanthropy to increase access and opportunity.

Cassandra Mesko

Senior Consultant
A strategist and closer, Cassie has raised millions of dollars of new gifts and commitments by virtue of her work in major gift solicitations, prospect management, volunteer capacity building, and comprehensive campaign management for both higher education and social change organizations.

Patrick Mulvihill

Associate Consultant
A UK-based expert in education and community fundraising, Patrick leads capital campaigns, bursary funding, major gift solicitation and stewardship, corporate fundraising and sponsorship, trust and grant applications, events management, and international funding in China, Hong Kong, Russia, and North America.

Bridget Murphy

Chief Growth Officer
A nonprofit veteran of three decades, Bridget brings extensive experience in strategic planning, fundraising management, and staff development to her role at Graham-Pelton. She has led fundraising operations and campaigns at multiple healthcare organizations and has consulted for nonprofits across sectors, including education, social impact, and the cultural arts.

Doug Myers

Senior Associate
Doug Myers is a chief executive leader with 30 years of experience leading national teams to generate revenue that funds strategic operational goals and exceeds client expectations. He has deep experience in the senior living and retirement community space, is an expert at translating vision into reality by developing tactical plans and effectively motivating teams and stakeholders to succeed, and is a collaborative team player who delivers results in alignment with finance and operating teams to support strategic priorities. Doug is an inspirational public speaker with internal and external constituents and has strong interpersonal and donor relationship skills with a proven track record of establishing new relationships with key funders and obtaining multi-million dollar, multi-year commitments.

Jane Narich

Senior Associate

Chelsey Newmyer

Senior Consultant
An analytical problem solver, Chelsey uses a data-driven approach fostered by her engineering background to conduct multipronged annual giving campaigns, manage leadership-level prospects and volunteers, and enhance cross-departmental relationships.

Brian O'Leary

Senior Vice President
An architect of mega-giving strategy and a reviver of stagnant annual giving programs, Brian is a leader in development and messaging within higher education and social impact sectors. Brian leads highly effective fundraising strategy and campaign communications teams while managing limited budgets and tight deadlines.

Mukesh Parikh

Controller
A numbers aficionado with a lifelong commitment to accuracy and precision, Mukesh is enlivened through his role ensuring behind-the-scenes financial excellence.

Erica Pettis

Vice President
Noted for her authentic and comprehensive partnership with independent schools, Erica strategizes board and donor relationship management and all aspects of the solicitation cycle. A leader in campaign planning and management, Erica has coached clients to ask for and receive the largest gifts in their histories.

Jamie Pugh

Senior Consultant
With an exceptional ability to build relationships, exceed goals, and manage campaign-related projects for 9- and 10-figure efforts, Jamie Pugh is noted for expertly designing and implementing major gift strategies, shepherding priority projects and initiatives, collaborating with organizational partners, and developing clear and compelling fundraising communications.

Michael Richmond

Senior Associate
Michael Richmond joins Graham-Pelton as a higher education advancement professional bringing nearly three decades of extensive, proven success to development programs, focusing on strategic donor-centered relationship building through development. His proven track record includes overseeing development operations management, ensuring efficiency and fiscal responsibility while expanding reach, personal and programmatic solicitation, and personnel management while conducting and teaching the principles of fundraising. In addition to his role with Graham-Pelton, Michael currently serves as Director of Annual Giving at LSU Health Foundation New Orleans, where he has identified growth areas within Development and expanded Annual Giving Staff, communication channels, and fundraising scope.

Betsy Rigby

Vice President
Betsy Rigby has worked exclusively in fundraising for more than 30 years. She spent nearly half of her career with the Partners HealthCare System (now re-branded Mass General Brigham), where she created the first hospital-based talent management program, among other responsibilities. She spent the other half of her career in leadership fundraising roles for a range of Boston-area nonprofits including the American Red Cross, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, the MGH Institute of Health Professions, and others. For the last three years, she served as a consultant to healthcare and higher education clients, providing talent management services, conducting campaign studies, and delivering trainings.

Pamela Rossi

Vice President of Business Development Services
An editorial expert and quality assurance leader, Pamela assists with document development for the entire spectrum of Graham-Pelton’s marketing, business development, sales, and operational needs.

Bryan Rowland, Ph.D.

Vice President
Bryan Rowland is a higher education professional with fundraising experience in soliciting and closing major gifts from individuals, corporations, and foundations for comprehensive campaigns that extend into the billion-dollar range. His accomplishments include increasing philanthropic performance, aggressive goal setting, and recruitment of highly successful advancement staff. He is also an experienced leader of university-affiliated foundations, providing strategic direction and oversight of all foundation operations including investments, audits, gift accounting, and board relations.

Jim Rude

Senior Vice President, Data Analytics
With pragmatic and measured logic, coupled with emotional intelligence, Jim brings a rare and sophisticated approach to data analytics and prospect management as complex organizations plan for record-breaking campaigns. The leader of Graham-Pelton’s Data Analytics Practice, Jim is a pioneer of our unique approach to vetting and tiering prospects to generate the greatest value for clients.

Sean Ryefield

Manager, Systems & Operations
An expert in data management and analytics, Sean Ryefield serves as a member of Graham-Pelton’s data analytics team, focused on making data actionable for the full range of Graham-Pelton’s clientele.

Prior to joining Graham-Pelton, Sean served as Assistant Director of Development at The University of Texas at Austin where he built a database and complex automations from the ground up to manage and deliver workforce data to several critical business units.

Lauren Shinn

Associate Consultant
Lauren Shinn is a development professional with experience in a range of healthcare-related and academic medical settings, as well as organizations that focus on child and family services.

Meredith Schneider

Senior Consultant
A capital campaign leader noted for her donor relationship management and persuasive communications, Meredith Schneider is devoted to helping organizations find creative solutions to address their unique challenges and ultimately advance their missions. Noted for her ability to engage a variety of both internal and external stakeholders, Meredith is also a program-builder, having launched an entrepreneurship philanthropy program while at The George Washington University.

Alex Senchak

Vice President
With an aptitude for analyzing return on investment and productivity, Alex has helped organizations of all sizes plan for the future and launch campaigns while maximizing resources. Working within the arts, academia, and human services, Alex leads major gift fundraising plans and campaigns, early-stage development plan creation, and board and executive engagement and training.

Alice Sockett

Consultant
The builder of strong and lasting relationships, Alice’s influence moves people to action. Working with a broad range of clients, she delivers assessments, campaign planning studies, and strategic counsel to leading independent schools, NHS trusts, universities, and museums. Based in the UK, Alice is passionate about professionalizing legacy fundraising and is a frequent speaker on the topic.

Deepa Srikanta

Associate Consultant
Deepa Srikanta is a results-proven corporate and foundation relations officer with nearly a decade of experience in large, complex higher education organizations and a deep understanding of the value of interdisciplinary education and research.

Jackie Sullivan

Chief Client Services Officer & Independent Schools Practice Group Leader
A sincere relationship manager and consummate bridge builder, Jackie serves a variety of independent school, higher education, and social change clients. She also leads Graham-Pelton’s talent recruitment initiatives, strategically identifying and assessing those candidates most aligned with the firm’s mission and goals. An external relations expert, Jackie counsels development teams in optimizing their roles and departments, as well as provides counsel on campaign planning, campaign management, and board and leadership engagement.

Tom Sullivan

Senior Vice President
A veteran of more than four decades in the institutional advancement sphere, Tom Sullivan has served in both staff and leadership positions for a range of organizations in higher education, academic medicine, and healthcare. He has led highly successful multi-faceted advancement initiatives and is recognized for his proficiency in strategy development, principal and major gift fundraising, comprehensive campaigns, and constituent engagement. Tom brings a proactive approach along with a significant background and perspective in strategic thinking and organization and a deep appreciation and understanding of the vital role and positive impact of philanthropy. He has worked with, recruited, trained, and inspired numerous CEOs, Board members, faculty, and volunteers. He is committed to developing and enhancing a culture of philanthropy for the nonprofits he serves.

Gerry Wawrzynek

Senior Associate
A problem solver with a talent for bringing clarity and direction to ambiguous situations, Gerry Wawrzynek has led strategic planning, alumni engagement, annual giving, and international advancement programs in higher education for more than a decade. His experience includes on-the-ground work in 13 countries across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. In addition to his role with Graham-Pelton, Gerry serves as a consultant in the education and social sectors, advising senior leaders on growth strategy and change management.

Todd Weissman

Senior Consultant
Having successfully developed and implemented programs that diversify philanthropic support throughout his nearly two decades working in and with nonprofits, Todd is a passionate fundraiser, manager, and communicator adept at building relationships and gaining buy-in from diverse stakeholders. Prior to joining Graham-Pelton, he demonstrated this expertise while working closely with senior physicians, medical staff, and fundraising teams as Director, Principal and Major Gifts at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.