SPEAKER BIOS

Priscilla Bratcher, CFRE

Priscilla joined the newly created Office of the Executive Director for the Arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 as its first Director of Development. To the position she brought over 20 years of fundraising experience, beginning with the University of North Carolina Center for Public Television. During her five years there, she led a team to its first national PBS award for on-air fundraising.

From 1990-94, she served as Vice President for Development of the American Social Health Association and in 1994, moved to Capital Consortium where she worked with clients in three states to design and implement multi-million dollar capital campaigns.

From 1998-2003, she served as Director of Principal Gifts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, managing $1M+ prospects for the university's Carolina First capital campaign, while raising $5M for the renovation of Memorial Hall, one of the university’s signature historic buildings and home to the new Carolina Performing Arts Series.

In 2003, Priscilla was appointed first managing director of the Royal Shakespeare Company America, the British theatre company’s U.S. fundraising office. Returning to UNC in 2005, she arrived just in time to celebrate the grand re-opening of Memorial Hall.

Priscilla holds a B.A. from Denison University with a major in theatre and an M.F.A. in Arts Management from the University of Iowa. Her speaking engagements have taken her from London to Mexico City and most recently to San Diego at the AFP 2008 International Conference.

Joe Hatcher, Ph.D.

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Dr. Hatcher, holds an A.B. degree in English from the University of Wichita and both the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English from the University of Kansas. In 1981, he came to Hendrix from Albion College in Michigan, where he had served as vice president for college relations and development. During his tenure, enrollment stabilized at around 1,000 students, the collegeʼs endowment reached $60 million and two buildings were constructed while six others were renovated completely. Dr. Hatcher has remained active in Conway's business community and in higher education in Arkansas since leaving the college's presidency in 1991. During the 90's, he worked as the Vice-Chairman of First Commercial Bank in Little Rock and later as the Director of the Presidential Search Division of AST/BRYANT. Currently he works as a consultant with Hueston Consulting Group, LLC based in Conway, AR. Dr. Hatcher has provided consulting services for numerous charities and served on several boards, including Pulaski Academy, CARTI, the Arkansas Community Foundation and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

Sandra Keiser Edwards

Sandra (Sandy) Keiser Edwards currently serves as Associate Director of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, a fine art museum founded by Alice Walton and scheduled to open in 2010 in Bentonville, Arkansas. Prior to this appointment, Sandy served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Development at the University of Arkansas for nine years. She and her late husband, Clay, served as the management team for University Development directing the Campaign for the 21st Century. The campaign’s goal of one billion dollars was exceeded by $46 million on June 30, 2005. The Campaign made national news in April 2002 when it received a $300 million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation – the largest gift given to date to a public university. In 2007, Sandy was made an honorary alumna of the University by the Arkansas Alumni Association.

Previously, Sandy served as director of development for Outreach and Cooperative Extension at the Pennsylvania State University, a post she held from 1992 - 1998. She created the first comprehensive advancement program in the field of continuing and distance education at a public university. She was part of the management team that created Penn State's World Campus, a virtual university for students at a physical distance from the university. From 1988 to 1992, she was director of station development for WPSX-TV and WPSU-FM, Penn State's public broadcasting stations. Prior to her involvement in the field of development she was a major concert promoter, a performing arts presenter and an arts administrator. She holds a B.A. degree from Lenoir Rhyne College in Hickory, N.C., and an M.S. degree in college student personnel/concert management from Western Illinois University, where she has been honored as a Distinguished Alumni.

Gary Martin

Gary is a Vice President and Philanthropic Consultant with the Merrill Lynch Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Management (CPNM). Gary joined the CPNM in 2004 after having served more than six years as a Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor.
Gary’s experience in the nonprofit sector includes 15 years as a development officer, planned giving director, senior trust administrator and foundation executive. He has served as President of the University of New Hampshire Foundation and Executive Director of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology Foundation at Texas A&M University. Gary holds the Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP ®), Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy ® (CAPTM), and Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC ®) professional designations.

Gary earned a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from Texas A&M University, where his doctoral dissertation examined the demographics of charitable remainder trust donors. His current volunteer involvement includes board, advisory, and leadership positions with the Texas A&M Press, the Rotary Club of Aggieland, the Opera and Performing Arts Society, and the Texas Aggie Band Association. He also serves as a Trustee of the Stilwell Retirement Residence for Teachers in Waco, Texas and the James Dick Foundation for the Performing Arts in Round Top, Texas.

A U.S. Navy veteran, Gary served as a Chinese Mandarin linguist and cryptanalytic intelligence special operations team leader aboard submarines during the Vietnam conflict. He holds a commercial pilot's certificate with instrument, multi-engine, and seaplane ratings, and he has been a certified flight instructor for more than 25 years.

Brad Choate

Brad Choate assumed duties as Vice Chancellor for University Advancement on July 1, 2008. As Vice Chancellor Choate has responsibility for the University’s fundraising efforts as well as University Relations, the Arkansas Alumni Association, constituent relations, special events and the Arkansas World Trade Center.

Before joining the University of Arkansas, Choate was Vice President for University Advancement at University of South Carolina where he had responsibility for fundraising efforts and advancement units, including the offices of advancement administration, media relations, communications, development, government relations, and the Carolina Alumni Association.

Prior to South Carolina, Choate was president and chief executive officer of the Minnesota Medical Foundation, where he served for 10 years. Choate oversaw fundraising efforts totaling more than $500 million for health-related research, education, and service at the University of Minnesota.

In 2004, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education named Choate the winner of the CASE Commonfund Institutionally Related Foundation Award recognizing his leadership and exemplary professionalism. The award recognized Choate for making great strides in the development and quality of the Minnesota Medical Foundation and for providing significant service to the community of institutionally related foundations.

Before joining the Minnesota Medical Foundation, Choate was associate vice president for development and university relations at Penn State University, where he oversaw completion of three highly successful capital campaigns, including a $352 million university-wide capital campaign. Choate also has held senior management positions at The Ohio State University including director of corporate and foundation relations.

Choate earned a bachelor degree in history, a bachelor degree in political science and a master's degree in education from Southern Illinois University. He and his wife, Julie, have three children: Brent, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy; Lauren, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse; and Lindsey, a doctoral student at the University of Arkansas.

Bob Moody

Bob Moody was born in Charleston but has lived in Ft. Smith most of his life and is graduate of Northside High School. He holds an associate degree from Westark, a BA in Education and History from Arkansas Tech, and a Masters in Education from the U of A. He has 25 years experience in the health care field.

He and his wife Linda have been married for 42 years and have one child and two teenage grandchildren.

Bob is a former Commander of 362nd Psyop Company and 316^th Quartermaster Battalion and now retired from the U.S. Army Reserves.

Bob was one of the founders of the Celebrity Classic (formerly called the Celebrity Golf Classic) while employed as Vice President of Development at St. Edward and helped coordinate the event for several years. He has been involved with the Celebrity Classic again since Sparks became a co-sponsor three years ago.

Susan Krafft

Susan Krafft was born and raised in Ft. Smith and is a 1995 honors graduate of Northside High School. She graduated from Hendrix College in 1999 with a BA in Psychology and received a MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology in 2001 from the University of Tulsa.

As the Student Activities Director at TU she had the opportunity to bring some amazing people to the campus: Maya Angelou, James Earl Jones, Yolanda King, Louis Gossett Jr. as well as numerous bands and artists for concerts.

She moved back to Ft. Smith in 2005 and began working as the Event Coordinator for the Celebrity Classic now in its 14th year.

She is a graduate of the Leadership Ft. Smith program, Class of 2008 a member of YEL (Young Emerging Leaders) of Fort Smith; named January Member of the Month.

She has been married to husband Chris for 7 years and has two children.