Speaker Bios

Kivi Leroux Miller is the founder and CEO of Nonprofit Marketing Guide, where she helps nonprofit communications professionals learn their jobs and love their jobs through a variety of training and coaching programs. She has personally mentored more than 100 nonprofit communications directors and communications teams as a certified executive coach.

She is a popular keynote, workshop, and webinar presenter, speaking dozens of times each year.  

Kivi is also the award-winning author of three books, as well as a popular blog:

• CALM not BUSY: How to Manage Your Nonprofit’s Communications for Great Results (2018, published by Bold & Bright Media, which Kivi co-founded.)

• Content Marketing for Nonprofits: A Communications Map for Engaging Your Community, Becoming a Favorite Cause, and Raising More Money (2013, Winner of the Terry McAdam Book Award)

• The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause (2010, used as the textbook in many college and certificate programs on nonprofit communications)

Because she can't get enough of nonprofits and entrepreneurship for good, Kivi also co-leads a Girl Scout troop and is vice president of the Lexington Farmers Market Association (Lexington, NC). She also co-founded Grow and Go Girls, a small baking and gardening business where all net profits go into a travel fund for a group of small-town girls to travel the big world, including one of her daughters.

Penny A. Rogers, IAP-L, ISM Consultant | Advancement Academy Co-Convener

Penny’s experience in private-independent schools includes more than 13 years in all areas of advancement, including fundraising and admission. She specializes in the areas of marketing communications, enrollment management, and development, including digital marketing, social media, mission-based messaging, strategic enrollment management and marketing plans, and crisis communications and media relations.

As an Advancement Consultant and founding Advancement Academy Faculty member with ISM, Penny:

• Consults in marketing communications and enrollment management planning, case statements, message frameworks, and development assessments

• Teaches and mentors advancement professionals during ISM’s weeklong Advancement Academy

• Conducts workshops and webinars focused on marketing communications and enrollment management recommended strategies

• Writes for ISM’s publications, including Ideas & Perspectives

• Speaks at national educational conferences, including CASE-NAIS, EMA, and AISAP

She holds the Leader Certification through ISM’s International Advancement Program (IAP-L).

From 2013–17, Penny served as the Director of Admission & Marketing at Academy at the Lakes, a PreK3–12 school located in Tampa, FL, where she helped the school reach record application and enrollment numbers.

From 2009–13, Penny was the Director of Communications at Ravenscroft School, a PreK–12 school in Raleigh, NC, where she was charged with building the communications program from the ground up. In addition, she was the Annual Fund Director at Ravenscroft for two years.

Before her time in private-independent schools, Penny worked in publications and media relations for the University of Texas, the Memphis Center City Commission, and USA Synchro (National Governing Body for the sport of synchronized swimming) in Colorado Springs, CO.

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Jill Goodman is a fundraising and strategic planning professional with a diverse range of skills across the non-profit and educational sectors. With over 20 years of experience developing, executing, and growing core fundraising programs to forward the mission of numerous organizations, Jill has built a reputation for exceptional, solution-oriented results. With a 360-degree understanding of the non-profit world – she has served as an administrator, staff member, grant maker, trustee, and volunteer – Jill recently demonstrated measurable success by helping The GreenMount School, an independent institution, quadruple its annual giving via donor identification and creative stewardship. Her leadership and development consulting experience span every organizational size, from health initiatives like the Movember Foundation (known for its yearly international awareness campaign) to small, independent schools. Jill continues to help organizations harness the combination of smart methodology, creativity, planning, and compelling messaging that is essential to stand out in today’s competitive non-profit landscape.

Jill hails from the Mid-Atlantic, growing up in an industrial Pennsylvania town, the daughter of a factory owner who had a strong philanthropic commitment. Immersed in an ethos of generosity, Jill became involved in community initiatives and fundraising from a very young age. She is a graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia, and now calls Baltimore, Maryland home.

Lisa Gordon Stella.

For nearly twenty years, Lisa Gordon Stella has represented clients in litigation, negotiation, employee relations, strategic personnel planning and stakeholder communications.  Following her clerkship on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Lisa worked as attorney at a boutique litigation firm in Los Angeles specializing in complex litigation and international arbitration.  Relocating to North Carolina in 2001, Lisa then worked as a litigator at the law firms, Kilpatrick Townsend and Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough.  After seven years litigating cases in state and federal court and in administrative proceedings, for clients worldwide, she became general counsel for a French technology company.  In that capacity, she was charged with overseeing and directing all legal matters in the United States, including employee relation matters. 

In 2009, leveraging her experience as a former litigator and general counsel, Lisa formed her own firm focused on providing businesses, non-profits and charter schools with legal and strategic advice.  As part of her practice, Lisa is a DRC certified mediator and also serves as special counsel, investigating allegations of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, misconduct, whistleblower complaints and conflicts of interest.  In her capacity as special counsel, Lisa has investigated a wide range of matters often involving those in the highest levels of leadership.  Because of her legal background and communication skills, she is often retained to serve as special counsel by large law firms and multinational corporations.   

Committed to providing pro bono services, Lisa has devoted hundreds of hours to representing parents in Hague Convention child abduction matters in North Carolina federal courts. For this work, Lisa received the North Carolina Bar Association Pro Bono Award for Young Lawyers, the Award of Merit from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children & the Scarborough Award for Outstanding Work for the Poor from Nelson Mullins. 

Passionate about serving her clients and her community, Lisa served six years as President of the Elna B. Spaulding Conflict Resolution Center in Durham, North Carolina, ten years as the Vice President of Maureen Joy Charter School and serves as co-chair of the North Carolina Association for Public Charters Schools.  She received her A.B from the University of California at Davis, Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude, her law degree from the University of Minnesota, Order of the Coif, Magna Cum Laude and served as a judicial clerk for Michael Daly Hawkins of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Phil Higginson, IAP-L

ISM Advancement Consultant | Assistant Head of School for Institutional Advancement at Ravenscroft School

Phil provides expertise in the areas of advancement and strategic planning. He works with schools to develop their strategic vision, establish financial priorities, and formulate campaigns to fund strategic initiatives. He has extensive knowledge of endowment and planned giving strategies as a way to increase donors’ capacity to give at leadership levels.

As a member of ISM’s Advancement Team, Phil:

• Serves as one of the planning architects for ISM’s weeklong Advancement Academy
• Acts as an instructor and mentor during Advancement Academy
• Teaches workshops related to alignment of advancement objectives, institutional strategic planning, management of major gifts programs, roles and responsibilities of the Development/Advancement Committee, and effective use of advancement data. He holds the Leader Certification through ISM’s International Advancement Program (IAP−L).

Phil also currently serves as Assistant Head of School for Institutional Advancement at Ravenscroft School, a PK–12 school in Raleigh, NC, where he has led multimillion dollar capital and endowment campaigns totaling $25 million.

Phil has presented at more than 30 local and national conferences for CASE, NAIS, NCAIS, AISGW, and NCPG. He served as Chair of the 38th annual CASE-NAIS national conference, and has served on two planning committees for this event. He is currently a member of the CASE District III conference planning committee.

Previously, Phil headed development programs at Norwood School, MD, including a $15 million campaign. At St. Albans, Washington, DC, he collaborated on a $15 million campaign. He has worked as an advancement officer, coach, and administrator since 1987.

Phil graduated from Groton School, MA, and earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Richmond, VA.

Scott Rempe, SVP, Sales and Marketing, Excalibur Direct Marketing

Scott has a long record of success in sales, marketing and management. He previously served as Vice President of Sales for Graphic Visual Solutions, Greensboro, N.C. Prior to that he was Direct Mail Marketing Manager for BB&T, and Director of Marketing and Customer Development with Coleman Resources in Greensboro.

A graduate of Clemson University, where he received a B.S. Degree in Graphic Communications, Scott is also a graduate of the BB&T Banking School at Wake Forest University. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors at The Enrichment Center in Winston-Salem, and is a volunteer artist at Brenner Children’s Hospital’s “Arts for Life” program. 

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