Cheryl Carruthers
Senior Executive Director, Advancement Services and Foundation Relations Columbia Business School
Cheryl Carruthers leads advancement services and foundation relations for Development and Alumni Relations (DAR) at Columbia Business School. Her responsibilities include developing and deepening prospect and donor relationships with the School through effective and efficient stewardship, gift processing, and data and information management, and supporting School fundraising and engagement goals through impactful donor engagement, gift and data reporting, and foundation outreach. During her tenure with DAR, she has also led prospect development, data analysis, information systems, and operations; acted as interim CBS Board secretary; participated in annual and five-year reviews of the research centers as a member of the centers and programs working group; and managed a data base transition.
Prior to joining DAR in 2007, Cheryl was director of administration at the Business School’s Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate, overseeing alumni, industry, and student engagement, communications, and operations. She also served as director of business development and marketing for the University of Ottawa’s Executive MBA Program and worked as a program officer in employer relations at Taxation Canada. She holds a BA in Geography from McGill University, an MBA from the University of Ottawa, and an MA in Higher Education from Teachers’ College at Columbia University.
Miriam Droller
Managing Director, CCS Fundraising
Miriam has dedicated her career to helping nonprofits fulfill their missions – working with them to increase their available resources, plan strategically for their futures, and maximize the impact on the societies they serve.
Since joining CCS in 2008, Miriam has partnered with leading institutions across all sectors including arts and culture, higher education, and advocacy, bringing to bear two decades of professional experience in strategic planning, major gifts fundraising, development department structure and operations, and campaign planning and execution for major nonprofit organizations. Her managed campaigns have exceeded goals ranging from $5 million to $4.5 billion.
As a Partner at CCS, Miriam plays a leadership role in CCS’s New York business operations and regularly presents on philanthropy and fundraising topics to Boards and development professionals. Miriam sits on the Board of the Giving Institute, the country’s foremost membership association working to advance philanthropy in the non-profit sector.
Prior to CCS, Miriam spent six years in development at Lincoln Center, honing experience in institutional and individual fundraising. Miriam received her AB cum laude from Harvard College and her MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Elaine Martyn
Senior Vice President, Private Donor Group, Fidelity Charitable
Elaine Martyn is the head of the Private Donor Group at Fidelity Charitable®, an independent public charity that has helped donors support 382,000 nonprofit organizations with nearly $73 billion in grants.1 The mission of Fidelity Charitable® is to grow the American tradition of philanthropy by providing programs that make charitable giving accessible, simple, and effective.
Elaine assumed her current role in 2014 and is responsible for leading a team of philanthropic strategists who support ultra-high-net-worth donors in their efforts to develop innovative solutions and strategies to maximize their philanthropic goals with their Fidelity Charitable donor-advised fund.
Prior to joining Fidelity Charitable, Elaine was vice president of development at Global Fund for Women, where she influenced the strategic mission and raised $60 million to support women-led human rights organizations in 175 countries. She leverages her experiences at Global Fund for Women, Refugees International, King’s College London, the British Medical Association, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School to develop strategies that help ultra-high-net-worth donors achieve their philanthropic goals.
Elaine currently serves on several boards, including Partners in Health, Prosperity Catalyst and NC Women United.
Elizabeth Oswald
Director of Institutional Advancement, The Nightingale-Bamford School
Elizabeth Oswald (aka “Oz”) discovered her passion for fundraising at the University of Virginia, raising money for many school organizations including the UVa Children’s Hospital. She parlayed that experience into leading the 4th Year Class Gift, raising $3.4M for the Class of 2007—a record that remains unbroken to this day.
Oz moved home to Atlanta, Georgia after graduating from UVa and served in the development offices of The Westminster Schools (her alma mater) and St. Martin’s Episcopal School. In 2013, she moved to New York City to further develop her advancement career—running annual giving and major gifts for The Brearley School and then leading The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine’s advancement and communications offices. She currently serves as Director of Institutional Advancement at The Nightingale-Bamford School, an all-girls, K-12 school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Oz has a past life as a semi-professional salsa dancer and continues to enjoy social dancing in her spare time. When not on the dance floor, you can find her under the sea flexing her advanced scuba certification or on a New York City parade route dancing with The Tailshakers dance team.
Terry Pearl
Founder & Chief Philanthropy Partner, 360 Philanthropy Partners
Terry Pearl is an accomplished nonprofit leader with over two decades of experience, specializing in fundraising, strategic planning, and board development. Throughout her career, she has raised over $200 million for various global nonprofits, including securing principal gifts up to $50 million. Terry’s consulting work has supported a wide range of partner organizations, such as the College Completion Innovation Fund at CUNY, the Society for Nuclear Medicine, the American Society of the University of Haifa, the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, Cohen Veterans Bioscience, and the Green Beret Foundation, among others.
Her background also includes significant roles like Chief Development Officer for St. Joseph’s Health, Vice President of Development at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Senior Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations for NYU Langone Medical Center, and Chief Advancement Officer for The Headstrong Project, which offers free mental health services to veterans.
Terry earned a Master of Public Administration in Non-Profit Management and a Master of Business Administration in Leadership from the University of Miami. She holds a BA in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania.
Terry is actively involved in community service, serving on the boards of various organizations such as the United Synagogue of Hoboken, Learning Community Charter School, and the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ New Jersey Chapter. She is committed to influencing change with her partner organizations to create impact. Click here to view Terry’s LinkedIn profile.
Andrea Perry
Senior Director of Operations & Campaign Management, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
Andrea leads the strategic planning, operations and administrative responsibilities of the Ross School of
Business advancement activities. She has successfully integrated numerous essential functions and currently manages stewardship and donor relations, communications, events, alumni engagement, and volunteer management. Additionally, in her previous roles Andrea oversaw annual giving, prospect analytics and corporate relations at the Ross School. She is currently serving as the Interim Chief
Advancement Officer. Prior to joining the Ross School in 2012, Andrea started her career in development by focusing on donor relations and grant management at the Pan-American Agricultural School (Escuela Agricola
Panamericana), an international university in Honduras. She also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in
Honduras in the natural resources sector. Andrea has a BS in Environmental Policy and Behavior from
the University of Michigan, and a Master of Urban Planning from New York University.
Tara Prout
Vice President of Partnerships and Advancement, National Urban League
Tara Prout, Vice President of Partnerships and Advancement at the National Urban League has a portfolio focused on special projects where she builds fundraising strategies for cross-divisional initiatives within the historical direct services and advocacy non-profit. Recently, she has been working alongside NUL’s inaugural Executive Director and Chief Curator of its Urban Civil Rights Museum in Harlem to create a fundraising plan and secure foundational grants for the new venture, opening 2025/2026. Prior to NUL, Tara worked for CCS Fundraising where she partnered with non-profits across multiple sectors to strategize, plan, and execute various fundraising initiatives. Her clients included Fordham and Seton Hall Universities, The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the Diocese of Bridgeport. Prior to CCS, Tara worked at the National September 11 Memorial Museum, the Parrish Art Museum and the MACRO Museum in Rome, Italy. She is a Trustee of La Salle Academy on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Tara holds a master’s degree in museum studies from Marist College and a bachelor’s from Georgetown University where she now serves as an alumni admissions program interviewer and a mentor to first-generation college students through the Georgetown Scholars Program.
Rebecca L. Rutherfurd
Executive Director of Fundraising Strategies & Campaigns, Weill Cornell Medicine
Rebecca currently serves as the Executive Director of Fundraising Strategies and Campaigns, a role she assumed in July 2019. A senior member of the management team with oversight of one of two major divisions with the Development unit, Rebecca focuses on the overall strategic planning, development, and resource management of multi-year, multi-faceted capital campaigns. Rebecca currently manages all aspects of the institution’s $1.5 billion We’re Changing Medicine campaign, a comprehensive fundraising campaign launched publicly in June 2021 to support all three areas of Weill Cornell’s mission to care, discover and teach.
Collaborating closely with frontline fundraising and development communications leadership, Rebecca directs all functions of campaign administration, including volunteer management and prospecting, as well as events, donor relations and stewardship. Rebecca also plays a key role in the staffing of the board chair, Dean and board-led campaign stakeholder groups, including the Campaign Executive Committee, the primary leadership body of the We’re Changing Medicine campaign.
Prior to joining Weill Cornell Medicine, Rebecca spent seven years as a senior member of the fundraising team at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, most recently as the Deputy Chief Development Officer for Campaign and Stewardship where she played a lead role in campaign management activities, including campaign strategy and execution efforts, as well as events and stewardship. She also directed all aspects of an 80-person Major Gifts Committee, a key volunteer leadership group supporting the Museum’s fundraising initiatives. Before joining The Met, Rebecca spent six years working for the City of New York during the Bloomberg administration, serving in a variety of different roles within two major branches of city government – the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.
Emily Stone
Director of Development, The Spence School
Emily G. Stone is the Director of Development at The Spence School, a K-12 Girls School on the Upper East Side. She has been in Development for more than 15 years in a variety of roles and in her current seat for the past five years. Emily Chaired the CASE NAIS conference in 2023 and is the incoming Vice Chair of the ISLG (Independent School Leadership Group).
She is a proud graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Trinity College. She lives in Westchester where she enjoys tennis, any and all card games, and spending time with her husband and two daughters.
Leigh Taublib-Kiriat
Senior Vice President, CCS Fundraising
Leigh has more than fifteen years of experience working with and within nonprofit organizations. Since joining CCS in 2013, she has partnered with organizations throughout the country and across the spectrum of nonprofits sectors to raise nearly one billion dollars in capital and programmatic funding for arts and culture, education, and healthcare organizations.
Leigh provides leadership, strategy, and advice to the non-profit sector. She works with organizations to help them achieve their most ambitious development goals. She has led the design of large-scale fundraising initiatives and extraordinary campaigns and has counseled organizations with financial targets ranging from $5M to $1B.
Much of Leigh’s work has focused on strategic and organizational planning, campaign planning, design and management, feasibility studies and assessments, principal and major gift strategies, board engagement and growth, and development department structure and operations.
Originally from Queens, NY, Leigh earned her B.A. from Tulane University where her passion for philanthropy grew as she coordinated logistics and communication efforts for several Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. She has visited more than 25 countries, on 5 continents, witnessing the great challenges in developing nations. Leigh recognizes the direct impact of generosity on a global scale and remains inspired by partnering with clients to achieve their philanthropic goals and see real impact.
Leigh lives in Westchester, NY with her husband, two children, and dog.
Elana Western
Senior Managing Director of Philanthropy, UNICEF USA
Elana Western is a Senior Managing Director of Philanthropy with UNICEF USA based in Boston. In this role, Elana builds partnerships with supporters and advocates in the Northeast and Midwest to advance UNICEF’s work for children around the globe. A passionate advocate for child rights, Elana has worked with UNICEF for over 15 years. She has also held roles with the American Red Cross in Seattle, WA, and TJX Companies. Elana holds a BS in Management with a Marketing concentration from Boston College. In her free time, Elana loves traveling, cooking, and spending time outdoors with her husband and young children.
