Faculty

Our instructors are sought-after leaders in their areas of expertise. They have led local, state and national organizations; written books, guides and training manuals; taught at colleges and universities; served on large and small nonprofit boards; and been hands-on practitioners in the field. Many now serve as consultants, helping nonprofit organizations across the region and the country to thrive.

Kate Jellema, Program Director

• Work: Director, Program in Nonprofit Management; Project Director, Benchmarks for a Better Vermont
• Education: BA, University of Michigan; MA, Johns Hopkins University; PhD, Interdisciplinary Program Anthropology and History, University of Michigan
• Courses: Practicum in Nonprofit Management

Kate directs the Program in Nonprofit Management at the Marlboro College Graduate School, where she oversees the MS in Managing Mission-Driven Organizations, the professional development Certificate in Nonprofit Management, and trainings for nonprofit board members. She also leads the Benchmarks for a Better Vermont project, a collaborative performance measurement initiative involving Marlboro College, the United Ways of Vermont, Common Good Vermont, SerVermont and the Vermont Community Foundation, with support from the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Rebecca Brookes

• Work: Upstream Social Marketing
• Courses: Nonprofit Marketing workshop, Social Media for Nonprofits workshop
• Follow Rebecca on Twitter

Rebecca has over 30 years marketing experience. She consults for nonprofit organizations domestically and internationally, working with clients like Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Greater Rochester Health Foundation, and Vermont substance abuse/prevention coalitions. She has taught marketing at the college level, peer reviewed marketing text books, written guides on applying social marketing to public health issues, and has presented national webinars on effective use of social media in non-profit organizations.

As Director of Social Marketing at Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York City, she directed Real Life. Real Talk®, a campaign to increase balanced talk about sex and health in America in partnership with the Ford Foundation.  She is principal author for an article on Real Life. Real Talk®, featured on the cover of the Spring 2010 Social Marketing Quarterly.

Through marketing initiatives, Rebecca has helped organizations reduce unintended pregnancy, engage parents in childhood obesity prevention, reduce smoking, increase civic engagement, reduce HIV/AIDS, increase use of health care, reduce substance abuse, increase attendance at events and workshops, and create a plan for healthier neighborhoods. Rebecca has taught in our Nonprofit Certificate program since 2008.

Stuart Comstock-Gay

• Work: President and CEO, Vermont Community Foundation
• Education: BA, Political Science, Bucknell University; MA Public Administration, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
• Course: Leading the Mission-Driven Organization I
• Find out How Stuart Comstock-Gay Became a Nonprofit Rock Star
• Follow Stu’s blog: What’s Stu-ing

Since 2009, Stuart Comstock-Gay has served as the President and CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation, which with $154 million in assets is Vermont’s largest foundation and is in the top ten percent of community foundations nationally for total assets and gifts received.

Stuart has extensive experience in building the capacity, reach, and impact of nonprofit institutions. He started his career at the American Civil Liberties Union, including ten years as executive director of the Maryland ACLU. He has also served as vice president and chief operating officer at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, and executive director of the National Voting Rights Institute in Boston. While at the latter organization, he facilitated its merger with Dēmos, a national non-partisan research and advocacy organization based in New York City.

More recently, as director of the Democracy Program at Dēmos, Stu sought to strengthen inclusiveness and democracy in the U.S. by reducing barriers to voter participation and encouraging civic engagement. In that role he worked with election officials, legislators, and advocates across the country to pursue policies that would encourage greater political participation.

Pat Daniel

• Work:  Pat Daniel Group and Engaging Peace
• Education: BA, Behavioral Sciences, Rice University; MA and PhD, Psychology, Boston University; Post-Doctoral Fellow, Psychology, Brown University
• Classes:  Caring for the Human Organization, People and Teams, Human Resources workshop
• Pat Daniel’s blog and LinkedIn profile

Pat Daniel works as a consultant and trainer, supporting corporations and non-profits on organization development, executive coaching, human resource development, strategic planning, communications, and sustainability.  She also provides career and life coaching services for individuals.

Prior to her independent practice, Pat served as the associate director of Ceres, a national network of investors and environmental groups working with corporations to address sustainability challenges. She interfaced with Ceres companies, investors and stakeholder groups, and directed the annual Ceres Conference. She played a key role in the development and launch of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and represented Ceres at the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. As the chief operating officer, Dr. Daniel managed operations, human resources, board relations, and strategic planning during a period when the organization more than doubled in size.

Before joining Ceres, Pat spent 11 years at Polaroid Corporation, where she served as worldwide training manager for Total Quality Management and corporate ethics and compliance. She led a re-engineering effort to enhance and streamline design for the environment and product stewardship, and managed the company’s environmental training. As an internal consultant and coach, she advised executives and employees on organizational and team development.

As a certified professional level Kripalu yoga teacher, Pat has taught yoga and meditation for over 20 years. She has a particular interest in yoga and the natural world, and has written about outdoor meditation forYoga Journal.  She was the founding editor of the Green Yoga Association newsletter.  She is the co-founder and managing editor of Engaging Peace, and blogs at WizardofEase.com.

 

Alisa Del Tufo

• Work: The Threshold Collaborative
• Education: BA, Colgate; MDiv Union Theological Seminary
• Course: Leading the Mission-Driven Organization II
• Read Alisa’s essay Community Building and Civic Engagement, A Case for Shifting our Paradigm

Alisa brings extensive experience in the nonprofit sector as well as an innovative approach to community engagement. In 1983 she established Sanctuary for Families in New York City to provide residential and non-residential services to battered women and their children. In 1993, Alisa founded CONNECT. CONNECT employs grassroots education, community organizing and capacity building to work for the prevention and elimination of family and gender violence, and has served as a model for other cities as well as federal policy changes. Alisa served as Executive Director of this 25-person organization from 1993 to 2006. As chair of the NYC Domestic Violence Housing Committee during this time, she led a two-year advocacy effort resulting in the dedication of 3 million dollars to develop permanent housing and support services for domestic violence survivors and their children in the city.

Four years ago Alisa founded the Threshold Collaborative, a national initiative based in North Bennington. The Collaborative partners with communities to develop a vision and strategies that will support local strength and well-being. In recognition for her work as a leading social entrepreneur with the potential to change patterns across society, Alisa was appointed an Ashoka Fellow. The Ashoka Foundation points to her role in enabling communities to succeed where institutional intervention has failed.

Alisa served as a Rockefeller Fellow at Columbia University where she pursued a project entitled "Choosing Non-Violence" and was also awarded the Charles H Revson Fellowship on the Future of New York for her research the overlap of maternal and child abuse. She serves on the Mayor's Commission to Combat Family Violence in New York and the ACS Commissioner's Domestic Violence Advisory Committee, and is the recipient of the Susan B. Anthony Award from the National Organization for Women- NYC, the Distinguished Service Award from the NYC Police Department, and a Humanitarian Award from Colgate University.

Cheryl Eaton

• Work: Kelliher Samets Volk, Partner and Director of Strategy
• Education:BA, Philosophy/Photography, Marlboro College, MBA in Managing for Sustainability, Marlboro College Graduate School
  
• Course: Needs and Wants in a Sustainable Society
• Watch Cheryl Eaton's "Wild Genius" TED talk video

Alice Estey

• Work: Alternative Dispute Advisor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mediation and Applied Conflict Studies Program at Champlain College
• Education: BSW, Colorado State University; Mediation Certificate, Woodbury College; MA Conflict Studies, Norwich University
• Course: Conflict Resolution workshop
• Read Alice’s article, A Case Against Advice-Giving

Alice has been a mediator in private practice since 1991. Currently on the graduate faculty of the Mediation and Applied Conflict Studies Program at Champlain College, she formerly taught mediation at Woodbury College and served as director of Woodbury’s undergraduate Mediation & Conflict Management Certificate Program. She has a passion for teaching, especially teaching adults. In addition to the academic setting, Alice has designed numerous intensive trainings in conflict resolution, negotiation and communications skills for agencies and organizations.

Christine Graham

• Work: Principal, CPG Enterprises; co-founder, Governors’ Institutes of Vermont
• Education: BA, Bennington; MEd in Organization and Management, Antioch Graduate School
• Courses: Fundraising and Philanthropy; Planned Giving; Donor Fundraising workshop

Christine Graham is a specialist in Nonprofit Management and Fundraising.  She has worked in the nonprofit sector since 1969 as staff and consultant to hundreds of organizations of all sizes and in all fields, primarily in Northern New England. . She specializes in fundraising planning and advisement, with a special focus on capital campaigns and building new and advancing annual fund programs.  Recent clients include the King Street Center, the Vermont Symphony, Preservation Trust of Vermont, the Vermont College of Fine Arts, St Michael’s Episcopal Church, Burlington Community Health Center, Buxton School, and the Northern Forest Center.

Christine co-founded the Governor's Institutes of Vermont and served as its first director. She established several academic and revenue-generating programs at Bennington College as Director of Special Projects prior to serving there as Director of Development.  She has served on numerous boards, commissions and task forces. The Business and Professional Women of Benningon County named Christine “Woman of the Year,” and she was selected as a Fellow of the Vermont Leadership Institute.

Christine is the author of numerous publications on fundraising and philanthropy, including "Keep the Money Coming: a Strategic Guide to Annual Fundraising,"  "Blueprint for a Capital Campaign” and “Asking.”  She recently released a new publication, “Raising Money for Local Land Protection Projects,” in partnership with the Vermont Land Trust.  She is editor and publisher of Nonprofit Vermont Newsletter, and the founder of both the New Hampshire and Vermont Directories of Foundations.

• Work: President and CEO, Visiting Nurse Associations of Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Vermont
• Education: BA, St. Michael’s College; PhD University of Iowa, Health Policy and Management
• Read the profile of Church in Business People Vermont

Since 1999, Church has applied his extensive experience in health care and public administration to his job as president and chief executive officer of the Visiting Nurse Association of Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties. The VNA is one of the largest and oldest home health agencies in northern New England. Church is responsible for overall executive leadership of the corporation, board development and relations, program and financial management,  public affairs, strategic planning, and budgeting.

Church has extensive public sector experience, having served as Deputy Secretary of Administration, State Budget Director for Vermont, and Director of Administration at the Vermont State Health Department. His worked spanned four gubinatorial terms, including two with Democratic Governor Madeleine Kunin and two terms with Republican Governor Richard A. Snelling.

Prior to joining the Visiting Nurse Association, Church was Vice President for Finance at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vermont and Chief Financial Officer for the University Health Center. He served as a member of the Vermont State Colleges Board of Trustees for 13 years, serving as chair of the finance, investments, facilities, and strategic planning committees, and he continues to serve on a number of community and regional boards.

Jim LeFevre

• Work: Jim LeFevre and Associates
• Education: BA, Goddard; MEd, Community Leadership and Development, Springfield College
• Courses: workshops in Leadership, Strategic Planning, and Governance; Boarding 101; Partners in Nonprofit Leadership

Jim is an organizational consultant who has worked for more than 20 years with clients from many sectors of the nonprofit spectrum. These clients include statewide land trusts and humanities councils, museums, health care organizations, international family planning organizations, and Planned Parenthood affiliates throughout the United States.

In his consultancy, Jim draws upon his extensive career experience, including seven years as the Chief Strategic Officer for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where he was the senior executive for strategic planning, R&D projects, and organizational change and development, working directly with the President on long-range and strategic initiatives. Jim created a major future planning process that included every PPFA affiliate and involved thousands of volunteer leaders, affiliate CEOs and program staff throughout the USA and culminated in PPFA’s award-winning Vision for 2025.

Earlier in his career, Jim served as the Chief Executive Officer of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England for 18 years.  He is the author of two books: A Case for Merger: the Story of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (1986) and Redirecting Boards: A New Vision for Governance for Planned Parenthood (1993).

Andy Robinson

• Work: Andy Robinson consulting
• Education: BA, University of Pennsylvania; MFA, University of Arizona
• Course: Grants and Earned Income workshop
• Read Confessions of a Capital Campaign Chair in Contributions magazine
• Watch Are You a Fundraiser? video

Andy provides training and consulting for nonprofits in fundraising, grant-seeking, board development, marketing earned income, planning, leadership development, and facilitation. Over the past fifteen years, Andy has worked with organizations in 47 US states and Canada. He specializes in the needs of groups working for human rights, social justice, environmental conservation, historic preservation, and community development.

Andy is the author of several books. His most recent, How to Raise $500 to $5000 From Almost Anyone, is designed for small groups with limited experience doing major gifts campaigns. Selling Social Change (Without Selling Out) features the work of two dozen progressive organizations that create and sell goods and services to support and extend their missions. Big Gifts for Small Groups, Grassroots Grants and Great Boards for Small Groups are classic guides for smaller nonprofits. Andy is also a frequent contributor to Grassroots Fundraising Journal, a publication focused on the connection between fundraising, social justice and movement-building.

When he’s not on the road, Andy lives in Plainfield, Vermont with his spouse, a woodlot filled with wildlife, and a garden that is completely out of control.