Leadership
Executive Cabinet
Meet the ASU Foundation for a New American University's talented leadership team.
Gretchen Buhlig
Chief Executive Officer
Gretchen Buhlig is the Chief Executive Officer of the Arizona State University Foundation for A New American University. Since joining the ASU Foundation in January 2012, Gretchen has been a catalyst for transformational change, generating record-breaking fundraising success and surpassing campaign goals year after year. Gretchen’s ultimate goal is to provide the tools, knowledge, and autonomy to enable a pipeline of future leaders to feel empowered and motivated to achieve their goals. She is a relationship-oriented idea-generator and drives large-scale institutional impact through transformative gifts.
Lauren Brown
Chief Operating Officer
Lauren Brown serves as the Chief Operating Officer where she provides oversight of strategic business planning and leads all central operations and development services. Her work advances the design and integration of organization-wide processes to ensure alignment and increased operational efficiency.
Bill Kavan
Vice President, Engagement & Outreach
Bill Kavan is the Vice President for Engagement & Outreach. He provides strategic management and oversight of the foundation's Engagement and Outreach division, which includes the following teams: Annual Giving; Donor Digital Engagement and Services; Donor Relations and Engagement; Engagement and Outreach Development (President's Club, Women and Philanthropy, Mirabella, ASU Library); Estate and Gift Planning, and Scholarship Advancement.
Patrick McDermott
Chief Global Advancement Officer
Patrick McDermott serves as Chief Global Advancement Officer, leading ASU Foundation’s growing global and regional advancement teams – including professional US staff on the East and West Coast, Hawaiʻi, Texas/Colorado and Midwest, as well as teams in the UK and Europe, Asia and the Middle East, building engagement and support for ASU’s mission. Patrick also oversees Global Corporate Advancement and the advancement team for ASU’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory.
Scott Nelson
Vice President, Enterprise Development & Senior Associate Athletic Director
Scott Nelson is the Vice President for Enterprise Development and the Senior Associate Athletic Director of the Sun Devil Club. Scott works closely with Sun Devil Athletics senior leadership and coaches to develop a comprehensive resource raising strategy with a focus on connecting with alumni, donors, and athletic fans to provide the resources required to support 26 NCAA DI sports and 600+ student-athletes. Scott also manages the Educational Outreach and Student Services and Cultural Affairs development teams.
Eric Spicer
Chief Development Officer
As the Chief Development Officer, Eric Spicer is responsible for leading and executing comprehensive fundraising strategies that support the university’s mission of access, excellence, and community impact. Eric collaborates closely with university leadership, academic units, and the foundation Executive Cabinet to align philanthropic efforts with institutional priorities. In addition, Eric leads a large development staff, ensuring a high-performance culture focused on donor engagement, stewardship, and long-term relationship building.
Senior Leadership Team
Vanessa Barrera
Executive Director of Donor Relations and Engagement
Vanessa Barrera serves as Executive Director of Donor Relations and Engagement. She oversees a team responsible for strategically nurturing and advancing relationships, acknowledging and recognizing donors for their philanthropy, demonstrating impact, expressing gratitude, enhancing donor retention, facilitating future giving, and providing a consistent and positive experience for donors and volunteers to deepen their connection.
Briana Cons
Vice President, Development Services
Briana Cons serves as Vice President of Development Services, overseeing research support including prospect identification, wealth analysis, giving trends, and engagement strategies, as well as data management, gift administration and charitable agreements.
Brendan Cunningham
Executive Director of Development, Unit Development
Brendan Cunningham is the Executive Director of Development for Unit Development at the ASU Foundation. He leads fundraising teams across six academic units at Arizona State University: Barrett, The Honors College; College of Integrative Sciences and Arts; Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovations; New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences; Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication; and Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.
Travis Egbert
Chief of Staff
Travis Egbert is the Chief of Staff at the ASU Foundation, where he oversees organization-wide budget management, leads strategic planning, and facilitates key initiatives that advance the Foundation’s mission. He manages the Foundation Initiatives team, which coordinates interdisciplinary philanthropic projects, and the Writing Services team, which supports grant writing and case development.
Michelle Govani
Assistant Vice President
Michelle Govani serves as Assistant Vice President and is charged with advancing fundraising efforts for ASU’s most ambitious, high-impact initiatives. She collaborates with executive leadership to secure major philanthropic investments toward the university’s moonshots. She also directs development strategy in science philanthropy, working closely with ASU’s Knowledge Enterprise to align donor support with transformative opportunities in science and technology. Her team leads ASUF’s faculty development programming, including Discovering Philanthropy and Moonshot workshops.
Lindsy Manning
Executive Director, Changing Futures Campaign
Lindsy Manning is the Executive Director of the Changing Futures Campaign, overseeing the strategy and execution of the university’s fourth comprehensive fundraising initiative. Changing Futures is ASU’s opportunity to rally a global community to shape a better future through six key areas: transforming global education, inspiring tomorrow’s game changers, reshaping our relationship with the planet, empowering community resilience, building the future of health and advancing technology for good.
Robyn Nebrich-Duda
Executive Director of Development, Arizona PBS
Robyn Nebrich-Duda, a seasoned fundraiser and nonprofit leader, comes to Arizona PBS after eight years at Barrow Neurological Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center. She served as the foundation’s Director of Philanthropy and Planned Giving. Nebrich-Duda leads the station’s Membership and Development teams, working with General Manager Scott Woelfel and colleagues at the ASU Foundation to establish and execute fundraising strategies for Arizona’s largest public television station.
Andrew Nelson
Executive Director, Foundation Development
Andrew Nelson serves as Executive Director of the Foundation Development team at the ASU Foundation. He leads efforts to build strategic partnerships between ASU and leading philanthropies, securing investments aligned with the university’s charter. His team advances institutional priorities by translating ASU’s ideas and initiatives into foundation-supported opportunities with scalable impact.
Carly Nieri
Executive Director of Development, ASU Health
Carly Nieri serves as the Executive Director of Development for ASU Health where she oversees fundraising for the new School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering and School of Public Health Technology. She also leads a team of experienced fundraisers in the College of Health Solutions, the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, and Biodesign Institute. Together, their focus is to raise philanthropic funds that advance the health outcomes and wellbeing of the communities in Arizona, and around the world.
Jason Sprinkle
Executive Director of Development, Estate and Gift Planning
Jason Sprinkle serves as Executive Director of Estate and Gift Planning (EGP) where he oversees asset-based and deferred giving for all colleges, schools, and units across the ASU Enterprise. He leads a team of experienced fundraisers who specialize in highly complex and tax-advantageous giving, real estate and life-income gifts. The EGP team advises and educates development staff, works closely with donors and their professional advisors, and helps donors fulfill their philanthropic passions to leave a lasting legacy at Arizona State University.
David Wahls
Vice President, Unit Development
David Wahls serves as the Vice President of Unit Development where he supports a teams of development leaders who are embedded within the colleges at ASU. The colleges work to build comprehensive philanthropic partnerships with industry, alumni, parents, and community members to advance ASU and our charter to drive solutions for the world.
Lindsay Walker
Executive Director of Development, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory
Lindsay Walker is the Executive Director of Development for the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, where she leads a team committed to mobilizing philanthropy for a healthy and thriving planet. Lindsay designs fundraising strategies to advance the mission of the Global Futures Laboratory, its research centers, programs and initiatives, as well as the College of Global Futures and its five schools.