Dave Sternberg

Dave Sternberg, CFRM Founding Partner of Loring, Sternberg and Associates is a nationally and internationally recognized board governance and fundraising expert. He his a Member of the Faculty of Lilly School of Philanthropy’s The Fund Raising School and a Senior Governance Consultant with BoardSource.

Dave has worked with clients across the globe to improve their governance structure and improve fundraising results.

He is the author of Fearless Fundraising For Nonprofit Boards (BoardSource 2008) and authored the original Purposeful Boards Powerful Fundraising for The Fund Raising School.

Dave is a graduate of The Ohio State University and serves on two boards, currently the chair of Purple Heart Homes.

Debbi Stanley

As an exceptional Executive Leader and nationally recognized expert in nonprofit fundraising, Debbi has a proven track record in developing strategies that bring success.
Her pragmatic approach to development includes data analytics, and technology stack improvement to drive overall operational excellence. Her team prides themselves on not being “talking heads” but actually providing real solutions to fundraising challenges.

Lisa Brown Alexander

Driven to serve the often-overlooked people management needs for the social impact sector, Lisa set out to build a market where one didn’t exist. She founded Nonprofit HR, the leading talent management firm in the country that works exclusively with the nonprofit sector.

Today, fueled by the passion of 100-plus employees and consultants nationwide, her thriving company is helping many of the nation’s most prominent nonprofit organizations get ahead through smart people management strategies. In the process, they’re changing the way an entire sector thinks about talent and culture.

Lisa has inspired Nonprofit HR to become a force that thousands of nonprofit and talent management leaders look to for consulting services, thought partnership, sector-specific hiring, and executive search needs, professional development and information.

Lisa’s leadership and the work of her firm have proven that better talent practices can play an integral role in nonprofit success. Nonprofits have benefited from her wealth of knowledge and experience to make their people-driven initiatives successful. Lisa’s goal is to ensure that every Nonprofit HR engagement inspires social sector leaders to strengthen their most important asset: their people. Over the course of her career, Lisa has presented to hundreds of organizations, staff and leadership teams, covering all things talent management for the social sector.

Caitlin Pontrella

Caitlin is an impact-oriented, mission-driven leader and change agent with a decade of experience serving the nonprofit and public sector. Having served as an Executive Director, Interim Executive Director, Interim Development Director, and Board President for various organizations, Caitlin has guided teams through all organizational life cycle stages including startup, rapid growth, crisis, leadership transition, and transformation. Her expertise in board governance and development, budget creation and financial management, and community-centric fundraising have helped her lead successful strategic planning initiatives, build cross-sector partnerships, and drive cultural changes in the workplace.

Her leadership starts with intentional diplomatic coalition building. By creating inclusive, emotionally intelligent spaces, she works to empower her team members with the confidence and resources to make informed decisions and actively participate in organizational growth. Caitlin excels at managing competing priorities, building trust, distributing power, and diffusing conflict in order to align towards a common goal. She places emphasis on fostering an open-hearted team culture that encourages communication and compassion by holding space for the complexities of humanity and our shared experience.

Caitlin prioritizes disrupting and altering practices, structures, and politics that prevent inclusion and belonging. She has previously helped historically cis, het, white-led organizations move from performative cultural awareness and affirmations to operationalization of their values with day-to-day action. Her approach involves the questioning of routine procedures that demand urgency, perfection, individualism, and a bigger-is-better mentality in efforts to authentically return to an organizations’ prime directive.

With a background of education in architecture, and layered experiences in design, the arts, and recreation, she brings a playful approach to tackling challenges. Caitlin’s life work centers around a desire for all people to live into the fullest measure of humanity, which drives her professional and volunteer work in urban arts, recreation, parks, and human services. She lives with her partner in Seattle and uses her free time to practice parkour and create art. Caitlin uses they/she pronouns.

Tim Paris

Tim is a leader in AI and machine learning for nonprofits with a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience. He is co-founder/CEO of Dataro, a “GiveTech” startup helping nonprofits increase their impact through AI and smarter fundraising practices. Prior to launching Dataro Tim ran his own data science consultancy. He is passionate about collaborating with fundraisers to build technology that helps them have a greater impact on the world.

Dr. Naketa Jones

Naketa has engaged in business and workplace ethics for over 20 years.  Her research and practice involve workplace ethical standards, promoting diversity, and ensuring ethical accountability when utilizing employee selection tools. Naketa is deeply passionate about assisting companies, universities, and non-profit organizations in responsibly, inclusively, and ethically integrating AI, Autonomous, and Algorithmic systems.

Naketa is actively involved in numerous workgroups that aim to establish standards for algorithmic bias and artificial intelligence governance. She holds her EdD in Educational Leadership from Bowling Green State University, where she received a comprehensive education in the latest theories and practices in ethical leadership.

Currently, Naketa is an instructor at Baker College, where she teaches courses on critical writing and workplace ethics. Her years of experience and in-depth knowledge make her a sought-after speaker, educator, and consultant in the field of ethical AI and algorithmic systems.

Joanna Drew

Joanna Drew is an independent grant writing consultant with experience managing all facets of the grants process, including prospect research, funder cultivation, LOI and proposal writing, budgets, and reports. She works with international NGOs and US-based nonprofits, building organizational capacity to pursue grant funding successfully. Since 2020, she has secured over $1m in grant funding for her clients, including Global Fund for Women, Limitless Horizons Ixil, and One Earth Collective, among others.

Raj Thakkar

Raj is the driving force behind FOREsight’s current and future initiatives and is responsible for the growth and sustainability of the company. Due to his impact on non-profits, social enterprises and small businesses, Raj has presented at conferences and workshops across the country and has been featured in numerous publications. In February 2013, he graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses initiative, designed to help small businesses grow and create more jobs. He was named Small Business Person of the Year for the NY district by the U.S. Small Business Administration in 2011, a 2013 Top Entrepreneur by Crain’s New York Business and the National Black MBA Association and he was also recognized as one of 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business by the Asian American Business Development Center. He also serves on the Board of an arts nonprofit

Patrice Shumate

Patrice Shumate has been working in social services and nonprofits since 2005 as a social worker and grant professional. In 2020, she started A Village for Good, a social enterprise business focused on nonprofit support and grant readiness. Her passion is creating space where small nonprofits have the support they need to navigate a complex philanthropic system. She works to build confidence and intention in how nonprofit leaders approach grant funding strategies while advocating for change in the process of wealth redistribution.

Marc Misiurewicz

Marc founded Empreinte Consulting to facilitate the work that is improving or transforming the human experience. Having served as the conduit for relationships between philanthropists and the organizations that benefit from their generosity for more than 24 years, he is able to provide broad and in-depth development leadership and philanthropic counsel. His work is supported by a wealth of knowledge on the strategies and best practices associated with both fundraising and giving.

Prior to launching Empreinte, Marc spent a decade building relationships with individuals and businesses who had an interest in or ability to support the University of Rochester and Rochester Regional Health. At the University, he supported fundraising efforts for Golisano Children’s Hospital and led the Del Monte Neuromedicine Institute Advancement team, as well as other programs. And at Rochester Regional, he oversaw a team of development professionals and worked closely with leadership to establish and implement a strategy for a comprehensive fundraising campaign. Before he entered the world of fundraising, Marc was doing recruiting for a division of Cochran, Cochran & Yale, a professional, technical, and executive search and recruitment firm. His experience there enabled him to establish Tax Integrity, LLC, which specialized in placing tax professionals in Fortune 500 companies.

Throughout his career, Marc has always been passionate about volunteering and giving back to his community. He has served on the board of Mary Cariola Children’s Center, which provides education and life skill solutions to individuals with complex disabilities. For the last 13 years he has been the coach and board member within the youth soccer club Cobras FC. In his spare time, he enjoys golf, soccer, and traveling with his wife, Jeannine, and their three children.

Marc is a graduate of Keuka College, where he earned a B.S. in Human Resource Management.