Susan Faraone, Illinois Institute of Technology
Jill Meister, The Williston Northampton School
Thomas Hampsey, Lafayette College
Marianne Pelletier, Cornell University
Alison Sommers-Sayre, Princeton University
James Rygg, City of Hope
Susan Faraone 
Associate Vice President
Illinois Institute of Technology
Institutional Advancement
10 W. 35th St. Suite 1700
Chicago, IL 60616
sfaraone@iit.edu
Board Term: September 1, 2009 -August 31, 2012
Board position: Director
Susan Faraone has worked with higher education institutions for much of her 30-year career in a wide variety of roles, including strategic and campaign planning, fundraising, research, marketing communications, donor relations and alumni relations. She has participated in the design, planning and execution of four comprehensive fundraising campaigns and is currently campaign director for Illinois Institute of Technology. A hallmark of her campaign direction is to bring together prospect research, prospect management and analytics in a coordinated effort with front line staff and institutional leadership to expand prospect pools and increase the effectiveness of fundraising at all levels.
Prior to joining the Institutional Advancement team at IIT in 2009, where she directs major gift and annual fundraising, corporate and foundation relations, prospect research and advancement services, Susan was Assistant Vice President and Campaign Director for the University of Chicago. She has been an APRA member since 2005 and chaired the conference curriculum committee for the 2009 APRA International Conference in Boston.
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Jill Meister
Director of Research
The Williston Northampton School
19 Payson Ave
Development Office
Easthampton, MA 01027-2205
jmeister@williston.com
Board Term: September 1, 2011 -August 31, 2014
Board position: Director
Jill Meister has over 20 years of experience in development and fundraising, and has served in several key roles that contributed to the success of six multi-million dollar capital campaigns. She received her Bachelor of Science in management from Franklin Pierce College before receiving her Masters of Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. After graduation, Jill worked as the manager of Development Research Services for the University y of Massachusetts Amherst, where she identified and assigned over 5,000 new prospects for the university’s first major capital campaign. She then worked as the Associate Director of Prospect Development for Brown University, RI, and she is the current Director of Research for the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, MA. She has been a member of APRA for 14 years, and has served on the curriculum, marketing, and conference committee. As an active member of the APRA community, she has presented at NEDRA, MARC, and APRA International events.
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Thomas Hampsey
Director of Development Research
Lafayette College
307 Markle Hall
Easton, PA 18042
hampseyt@lafayette.edu
Board Term: September 1, 2010 - August 31, 2013
Board position: Director
Tom Hampsey joined Lafayette College in 1997 and led the research office during the college’s $213 million capital campaign. He previously served as associate director of development research at Drexel University in Philadelphia and began his fundraising career as a grant writer/researcher at Centenary College in New Jersey.
A regular speaker on a variety of research topics, Tom received APRA’s Margaret Fuhry Grant in 2007 and was awarded the CASE “Faculty Star” designation in 2010. (This designation places the speaker in the top echelon of CASE faculty in three categories: knowledge of subject matter, presentation skills, and ability to respond to questions.) He served two terms as President of PREP/APRA, the Eastern Pennsylvania Regional Chapter of APRA (http://www.prepapra.org/).
In September 2010 he began a three-year term as a Director of APRA International. His work on the board has included service on the Nominations and Leadership Development committee, the Awards committee, and the Governance Committee.
Tom graduated summa cum laude from Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md., with a bachelor’s degree in history. He went on to receive a master’s degree in history from the University of Scranton where he received the Graduate Student History Award.
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Marianne Pelletier
Director, Advancement Research & Data Support
Cornell University
130 E Seneca St Ste 400
Ithaca, NY 14850-4378
mmp39@cornell.edu
Board Term: September 1, 2011 - August 31, 2014
Board Position: Director
Marianne Pelletier is the current Director of Advancement Research and Data Support at Cornell University where she supplies the prospect research for a $4 billion campaign. She is also a consulting associate for the Helen Brown Group, where she offers donor modeling, data mining, database management, and strategic management consulting to a wide variety of non-profits. Prior to beginning her career, she received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Rockford College, and her Masters of Business Administration from New Hampshire College. Marianne has published articles on prospect management with APRA and NEDRA, and presented with Datatel Users Group, ShareTraining, APRA, the Helen Brown Group, and the New England Annual Giving Conference. She has been an active member of APRA since 2007.
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James Rygg
City of Hope
Senior Director, Development Research
1055 Wilshire Blvd., 12th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017
jrygg@coh.org
Board Term: September 1, 2009 – August 31, 2012
Board position: Director
James Rygg is the Senior Director of Development Research at the City of Hope, and has served in this role since November 2000. He oversees the prospect research and prospect management areas of Development. He has been in the development field since 1992. Rygg recently received the CARA Service Award in 2009.
Rygg served as President for the California Advancement Researchers Association (CARA), from 2004 to 2006. He also served as the Programming Chair for CARA’s 2003 Annual Conference, the Southern California Regional Chair from 2000-2002 and Membership Chair in 2003. He is also an active member of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) having served on the Nominations Committee in 2005. In addition, he also served as a Track Co-Chair in 2003, 2004, and 2005 for APRA’s International Conference and most recently served on the APRA Curriculum Planning Committee for APRA’s 2009 International Conference and APRA’s Technology Task Force Committee.
Rygg has presented on various research and development topics at CARA, APRA’s International Conference, the Planned Giving Round Table’s (PGRT) Western Regional and local Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) chapters.
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Alison Sommers-Sayre
Executive Director, Development Information Strategy
Princeton University
350 Alexander St Ste B
Princeton, NJ 08540-7137
asommers@princeton.edu
Board Term: September 1, 2011 – August 31, 2014
Board position: Director
Alison Sommers-Sayre has over twenty years of experience with information management and data-driven analysis strategy within higher education, corporate environments and consulting capacities. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago with honors in Political Science before attending the University of California, Berkeley, where she received additional training in statistics and market research. She began her career with Princeton University as the Director of Development Research, where she built and managed a ten person team to the comprehensive campaign goals of the university. Currently, she works for Princeton as the Executive Director of Development Information Strategy, and manages a fifty person team consisting of three departments (Alumni and Donor Records, Development Information Systems, Development Research) to support a $1.75 billion fundraising campaign. Alison has been an active member of APRA since 2004.
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