Elective Learning is an online learning company based in Austin, Texas.

We specialize in online professional development programs, distinguished by our industry-leading subject matter experts who serve as instructors.

Our mission is to empower learners with practical skills and knowledge for career advancement.

Elective Learning is an online learning company based in Austin, Texas.

We specialize in online professional development programs, distinguished by our industry-leading subject matter experts who serve as instructors.

Our mission is to empower learners with practical skills and knowledge for career advancement.

Partners

Partners

About

About

Subject Matter Experts + Education Technology   

 

Elective Learning is an online learning company based in Austin, TX.

We create online learning programs that integrate the experience of subject matter experts with the power of education technology. The programs teach the fundamentals of the subject, along with proven best practices for the practical application of the information in real-life experiences. 

We hope the knowledge gained will create successful outcomes and opportunities for the individuals who complete the programs.

© 2024 Elective Learning LLC. All rights reserved.

info@electivelearning.com

© 2024 Elective Learning LLC. All rights reserved.

Liz Kogan

Liz is the Director of Research Administration in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin. Liz is focused on developing resources and best practices to increase effectiveness and efficiency of research administration in the College of Education. Additionally, Liz leads the team of College of Education administrators in assisting faculty and students with proposal submissions, award negotiation, and unique post-award interpretations; working closely with office colleagues to effectively administer sponsored projects within the College of Education.

Liz is a founding member of the Association of Research Administrators (ARA) at The University of Texas at Austin. Liz also served as the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) Region V Secretary from 2018 – 2020 and currently serves as NCURA Region V Chair-Elect, assisting NCURA Region V with executive leadership duties. With 15 years’ experience spanning the spectrum of research administration, Liz has supported research through preparing and providing educational tools and workshops; foundation matching and funding opportunity searches; proposal development, review, and submission; contract negotiation; complex post-award management; and detailed project reporting and audit compliance.

Kelsey Evans

Kelsey has been a team member in the Texas Development community since September 2001. She joined the University Development Office in Winter 2017 as Executive Director of Corporate Relations. In this role, she and her team are responsible for helping connect the campus’s greatest assets (people and research) with the University’s top corporate partners to foster mutually beneficial collaborations and philanthropic investments. With an eye towards always developing trust and to helping companies formulate a targeted strategy for engagement with UT, Kelsey brings a breadth of the University’s technical and programmatic expertise to every conversation.

Prior to this role, Kelsey served as Chief Development Officer for the College of Natural Sciences’ External Relations team, where, from 2013-2017, she oversaw the fundraising, alumni and board relations and corporate research relations activity for the largest college at UT. She began her career at UT Austin in the Cockrell School of Engineering, where from 2001-2013, she served as a major gift officer, growing from an Assistant Director to Executive Director of Development. Throughout all her years at UT Austin, she has had the privilege of knowing and working with incredible donors, corporate partner, parents, and friends to help them navigate and fulfill their philanthropy.

Kelsey came to UT Austin from Georgia Tech, where she was the Director of Development for the Department of Chemical Engineering from 1999-2001. Before her time in Atlanta, Kelsey worked in Los Angeles, California for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles where she was Donor Services Coordinator for the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. In all of her development positions, she has been proud to play a role in the success of the institutions she has served. Kelsey received her BA from the University of Arizona and lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, Scott, and their two children; son August (20 and an Aggie Engineer!) and daughter Avery (18 and a Texas State Bobcat!). She is an active member of the University-Industry Partnership network (UIDP), National Association of Corporate Relations Officers (NACRO), and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Lily M. Cabrera, MBA

Lily is vice president for client partnerships at 360 Philanthropy Partners. She is an accomplished nonprofit professional and fundraiser with more than two decades of experience in academic medicine, healthcare delivery systems, higher education, and policy.

Before joining 360 Philanthropy Partners, Lily held senior-level positions at the University of Texas at Austin and NYU School of Medicine working with leaders to secure six-figure to multimillion-dollar grants to improve health outcomes and advance biomedical research. She excels at developing and implementing innovative philanthropic strategies and achieving fundraising goals in complex, multistakeholder environments.

She has expert skills in grant writing; a proven track record of working with university presidents, academic deans, and faculty leadership; and has successfully fostered collaboration and led teams in the higher education, academic medicine, scientific research, and policy sectors.

Lily holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Seton Hall University. She completed professional coach training through Co-Active Training Institute (CTI), which is acclaimed as the “gold standard” for its grounding in evidence-based research. Lily hails from New York City and now calls Atlanta, Georgia home. In her spare time, she enjoys reading too many books simultaneously, tending to a vast herbal garden with her husband Jed, and spending quality time with her daughter, Sophie.

Leighton Wilson

Leighton has over fourteen years of fundraising expertise, having raised over $100 million in funding.

He currently serves as the Chief Development Officer at The University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs. Prior to this role, he worked at The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Natural Sciences, LSU Health Shreveport Foundation, and Centenary College of Louisiana.

Leighton holds a Master of Science in Philanthropy and Fundraising from New York University’s George Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising, a Master of Arts in Communication from Baylor University, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business.
His academic and professional journey reflects his commitment to the field of fundraising and higher education.

Cynthia Osborne, PhD

Cynthia is a Professor of Early Childhood Education and Policy in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. She is the founder and executive director of the national Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, an academic research center that translates the science of the developing child into state level policies with the strongest evidence base of effectiveness.

Cynthia has also co-authored reports for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on Building an Agenda to Reduce the Number of Children in Poverty by Half in 10 Years and Exploring the Opportunity Gap for Young Children from Birth to Age Eight. She holds a Ph.D. in demography and public affairs from Princeton University, a Master in Public Policy degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and a Master of Arts in education from Claremont Graduate University.

Davida Isaacson

After a successful career in trust and estate banking, Davida became the Director of Planned Giving and Endowments for WNET, the New York public television station. While at WNET, Davida produced training videos for distribution to the public broadcasting stations and began teaching planned giving at New York University. Her teaching career spanned 20 years until retirement in 2018 and included joining the faculty at Columbia University in addition to her being assistant professor at NYU. She has been a nationally recognized speaker on all aspects of planned giving. She served on the Board of the National Committee on Planned Giving and is now President Emeritus at the Philanthropic Planning Group of Greater New York (PPGGNY) from which she received an award for achievement in the planned giving community. In addition to continuing to present to development professionals, Davida is the Senior Philanthropic Advisor for The Seeing Eye, Inc. in Morristown, NJ.

Lily M. Cabrera, MBA

Lily is vice president for client partnerships at 360 Philanthropy Partners. She is an accomplished nonprofit professional and fundraiser with more than two decades of experience in academic medicine, healthcare delivery systems, higher education, and policy. Before joining 360 Philanthropy Partners, Lily held senior-level positions at the University of Texas at Austin and NYU School of Medicine working with leaders to secure six-figure to multimillion-dollar grants to improve health outcomes and advance biomedical research. She excels at developing and implementing innovative philanthropic strategies and achieving fundraising goals in complex,

multistakeholder environments. She has expert skills in grant writing; a proven track record of working with university presidents, academic deans, and faculty leadership; and has successfully fostered collaboration and led teams in the higher education, academic medicine, scientific research, and policy sectors.

Lily is on faculty with Elective Learning, an online education company with certificate offerings in Fundraising with the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, The Ohio State University, the University of New Mexico, the University of Tennessee, and others as partners, and a newly launching course for faculty fundraising. Lily holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Seton Hall University. She completed professional coach training through Co-Active Training Institute (CTI), which is acclaimed as the “gold standard” for its grounding in evidence-based research. Lily hails from New York City and now calls Atlanta, Georgia home. In her spare time, she enjoys reading too many books simultaneously, tending to a vast herbal garden with her husband Jed, and spending quality time with her daughter, Sophie. 

Leighton Wilson

Leighton has over 14 years of professional fundraising experience, focusing on major gift development. He is the Chief Development Officer for the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He has worked for the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, LSU Health Shreveport Foundation and Centenary College of Louisiana. Leighton has a Master of Science in Philanthropy and Fundraising from the George Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University, a Master of Arts in Communication from Baylor University, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University.

Adrian Matthys

Adrian Matthys is the Assistant Vice President for Annual Giving at the Oklahoma State University Foundation and has been working in higher education development for 20 years. In addition to his work at OSUF, Adrian has experience at both small private and large public institutions, as well as other nonprofit organizations outside of higher education. Adrian’s skill sets include direct marketing, reunion giving, leadership annual giving, alumni relations, as well as many other best practices for building top-performing annual giving teams, tactics, and campaigns. Adrian has a passion for annual giving and a great appreciation for educating development teams about the importance of strong sustaining giving programs.

Marian Stern

Marian has over 35 years of experience in philanthropy and fundraising. As the principal of Projects in Philanthropy, she has worked with a wide variety of organizations, providing management and fundraising services, with particular emphasis on fundraising planning, board development and training, strategic planning, meeting facilitation, and professional coaching. She also works with funders to define and implement charitable giving policies. Marian has also been an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University, a faculty member in the Fundraising Management program at Columbia University and an Adjunct Professor in American Studies at Rutgers University. Marian has a Master’s in Public Administration from the Robert Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Rutgers University.

Lily Cabrera, MBA

Course
Corporate and Foundation Relations

Professional Background

Lily is a professional coach and writer with two decades of nonprofit management experience (diversified experience in higher education, academic medicine, healthcare, and policy).

She is passionate about social justice and corporate social responsibility and how together our efforts through personal and professional development can transform our workplaces, our communities, and the world.

Lily is an experienced nonprofit professional with a track record of developing innovative strategies for donor engagement, including cultivating, closing, and stewarding gifts of $1 million+. She possesses a unique ability to realize synergies and create matches between organizations coupled with strong leadership skills in working with internal and external partners to develop and fund visionary proposals.

Lily possesses a strong background in all facets of development work including major gifts, campaign planning and execution, annual giving, planned giving, institutional giving, special events, prospect research and management, and operations.

She is a proud alumna of Dartmouth College and holds an MBA from Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business. Lily completed professional coach training through Coaches Training Institute (CTI).

Davida Isaacson

Course
Planned Giving

Professional Background

After a successful career in trust and estate banking, Davida became the Director of Planned Giving and Endowments for WNET, the New York public television station.

While at WNET, Davida produced training videos for distribution to the public broadcasting stations and began teaching planned giving at New York University (NYU).

Her teaching career spanned 20 years until retirement in 2018 and included joining the faculty at Columbia University in addition to her being assistant professor at NYU.

She has been a nationally recognized speaker on all aspects of planned giving. She served on the Board of the National Committee on Planned Giving and is now President Emeritus at the Philanthropic Planning Group of Greater New York (PPGGNY) from which she received an award for achievement in the planned giving community.

In addition to continuing to present to development professionals, Davida is the Senior Philanthropic Advisor for The Seeing Eye, Inc. in Morristown, NJ.

Adrian Matthys

Course
Annual Giving

Professional Background

Adrian Matthys is the Director of Annual Giving for the University of Texas at Austin and has been working in higher education development for 20 years.

In addition to his work at the University of Texas at Austin, Adrian has experience at both small private and large public institutions, as well as other nonprofit organizations outside of higher education.

Adrian’s skills include direct marketing, reunion giving, leadership annual giving, alumni relations, as well as many other best practices for building top-performing annual giving teams, tactics, and campaigns. Adrian has a passion for annual giving and a great appreciation for educating development teams about the importance of strong sustaining giving programs.

Leighton Wilson

Course
Major Gifts

Professional Background

Leighton Wilson has over ten years of professional fundraising experience, focusing on major gift development. He is the Chief Development Officer for the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He has worked for the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, LSU Health Shreveport Foundation and Centenary College of Louisiana.

Leighton has a Master of Science in Philanthropy and Fundraising from the George Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University, a Master of Arts in Communication from Baylor University, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University.

Marian Stern

Course
Foundations of Philanthropy

Professional Background

Marian Stern has over 35 years of experience in philanthropy and fundraising.

As the principal of Projects in Philanthropy, she has worked with a wide variety of organizations, providing management and fundraising services, with particular emphasis on fundraising planning, board development and training, strategic planning, meeting facilitation, and professional coaching. She also works with funders to define and implement charitable giving policies.

Marian has also been an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University, a faculty member in the Fundraising Management program at Columbia University and an Adjunct Professor in American Studies at Rutgers University.

Marian has a Master’s in Public Administration from the Robert Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Rutgers University.