14th Annual Nonprofit Institute Conference
Conference Speakers
Yolanda Wilson, Ed.D.
President
Dr. Yolanda Wilson became president of the College of Southern Maryland on January 3, 2023. She is the first African American president in the college’s 65-year history.
Prior to her presidential appointment, Wilson was vice president of Instruction, Ashe Campus and Alleghany Center at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. She worked in the North Carolina and South Carolina Community College Systems for more than 22 years, beginning her career as an adjunct faculty member before moving into more progressive leadership roles in academic affairs, student services, and campus operations. Her work in higher education has centered on creating a student-ready college culture, mitigating institutional barriers to access, retention, and completion, and strategically focusing on programming and policies that support all students to success.
Wilson has completed the 2019-2020 Aspen Rising President's Fellowship program, received the Phi Theta Kappa Distinguished College Administrator's Awards – both internationally and within the Carolinas – and was recognized as the South Carolina Technical Education Association Administrator of the Year at York Technical College. She is the Region 2 director for the American Association for Women in Community Colleges, serves as a peer evaluator for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and is a Leadership Coach for Achieving the Dream. In June 2023, she was appointed to the American Association of Community Colleges Commission on College Readiness for a three-year term. She is also on the USM at Southern Maryland Board of Advisors, the Charles County Chamber of Commerce Board, the Charles County Economic Advisory Board, the Calvert County Chamber of Commerce Board, the CalvertHealth Board of Directors, the Maryland Association of Community Colleges Presidents' Council and Board of Directors, the Transform Mid-Atlantic Board’s Presidents’ Council, The Patuxent Partnership Board of Directors, the Southern Maryland Task Force – Catholic Charities, and the Southern Maryland Workforce Development Board. She is currently in Leadership Southern Maryland's Executive Program class of '24.
Wilson earned her bachelor’s degree in English Education and her master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Maryland, College Park, her Developmental Education Specialist Certification from Kellogg Institute at Appalachian State University, and her Ed.D. in Adult and Community College Education from North Carolina State University. She is blessed to be married to her best friend, Dale, and they have three sons: Bryan, Brandon, and Braxton.
Tom Brush
CEO
Tom Brush is a nonprofit consultant/coach who partners with nonprofit leaders and organizations to design strategies to further engagement with their constituencies, effectively manage volunteers and boards, increase donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations, and creatively steward donors. After spending nearly 25 years working in leadership, engagement, and development in the nonprofit sector, Brush knows that each organization is unique, and he helps them find their own unique pathway to success.
As the founder of Advancement Designs, Brush has supported nonprofits of all sizes in the areas of strategic planning, organizational leadership, board and volunteer management, and resource generation. He regularly presents and speaks on these topics at conferences and in front of groups large and small.
As a result of working with Brush, nonprofits have focused their efforts, enabling them to spend more time on the actions that produce the greatest results and help them take their next step along their unique pathway to success.
Brush holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA and has served as the president of two nonprofit boards. Outside of his passion for consulting and coaching, he loves to network, connect with other professionals, and officiate girls’ and women’s lacrosse.
Anthony Dicks, Jr.
Senior Leadership Consultant
Anthony A. Dicks, Jr. is a leaders' leader! His passion for leadership development is evident in his work with emerging leaders across many industries. He has spent over two decades preparing people with diverse responsibilities to reach their optimal leadership potential. He firmly believes that leaders are not developed by accident–they must be engineered.
"Anyone who works with Anthony will be blessed by his loving and nurturing coaching style." - Douglas Boyce, chief software architect of PD Instore, New Hope, Minn.
"Anthony gave me the best coaching value I've ever received to enhance my business. I have been in business for over 30 years and I am completely impressed with Anthony's clarity, plan, and attention to detail." - Cal Thompson, award-winning St. Louis businessman
Dicks, Jr. has an extensive education. He possesses a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, an MBA from Webster University, and an executive certificate in digital marketing from Cornell University. He currently transforms leaders as the senior leadership consultant for 180 Management Group.
Dominic Fragman
Director of Communications
Dominic Fragman is a musician and program designer whose work focuses on creativity, innovation, and freedom. His event programs have been featured at St. Mary's College of Maryland and the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum. He has toured extensively, including performances at the Kennedy Center, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the Madrid Jazz Festival. Fragman is a Southern Maryland native and serves as the director of communications for the Southern Maryland Chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. He uses AI for proposals, patent work, and the generation of over 10,000 (mostly weird) images.
Elisabeth Hyleck
Maria McDonald
Development Director
Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center
Maria McDonald is a dedicated nonprofit professional with extensive experience in organizational management, fundraising, marketing, strategic planning, donor retention, and programmatic growth. Serving over 30 years in a wide variety of nonprofits has given her insight into the significance of matching philanthropic individuals, corporations, and foundations to a mission that fits their priorities.
McDonald moved to Southern Maryland to help advance the mission of Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center through her position as development director. Before this, she was the executive director at Chester County Futures in Exton, Pa., where she raised over $3,800,000 from major individual donors through multi-year general operating pledges; successfully executed a $300,000 one-year endowment kick-off campaign; secured numerous foundation grants for capacity building, funding of a strategic plan, a board development project, technology upgrades, and staff training; and added 45 new corporate donors, 26 new foundations, and 102 new individual major donors over 12 years.
McDonald holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Immaculata University. She enjoys adventures with her black lab, Freddie, time with her grandson, culinary pursuits, and pens modern romantic comedy novels in her free time.
Kelly McLaughlin
CEO
Kelly McLaughlin is a dynamic creator, engaging speaker, systems architect, and passionate advocate for nonprofits. With a love for crafting the perfect recipe for success, she excels in assembling the essential ingredients to make individual giving programs not just efficient but downright delightful.
McLaughlin started fundraising as a five-year-old by raising funds for causes one bake sale at a time, and she has been a professional fundraiser since 2009. As the creator of the "Framework for Sustainable Fundraising," McLaughlin excels in guiding nonprofits through crafting, building, and scaling individual giving systems that not only banish burnout but also empower clients to create a more substantial impact.
McLaughlin has a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish (Literature) and International Studies (Political Communications). She also has a Master of Arts in Social Justice and Human Rights, with a concentration in nonprofit management. McLaughlin has scaled an individual giving program from $300,000 to $1 million in annual revenue in just four years. She also ran a capital campaign for a brand-new nonprofit that raised $250,000 in just six months.
Tom Morley
Managing Director
Tom Morley has 25 years of experience in consulting nonprofits, governments, and businesses. He helps them become sustainable, get better outcomes, and accomplish more through strategy, organization, people, and marketing solutions. After 15 years with “Big Four” consultancies, Morley launched Snowflake Consulting, a Certified B CorporationⓇ, in 2014 with a mission of transforming organizations to transform lives. Over the course of his career, Morley has worked with more than 100 clients across many sectors and industries in the United States and abroad.
Chris Ripley
Assistant Professor
Chris Ripley has more than 40 years of business experience in various industries. For his first 20 years, he worked in the retail industry, starting in a Macy's training program and working his way up to becoming the divisional vice president and general manager of a $55 million store. In his second act, he founded the Strategic Marketing Group and worked with hundreds of small businesses to help them get better results from their marketing and advertising.
Now in his third act, Ripley is an assistant professor for the business department at the College of Southern Maryland (CSM). After being an adjunct professor for 16 years, he decided to teach full time. He teaches a variety of topics, which include marketing, human resources, business strategy, and communications. Ripley is the faculty advisor to the Kappa Beta Delta Business Honor Society and an accreditation advisor for the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs. He is also a course coordinator for CSM's introduction to business, business math, and marketing courses. Additionally, he is an adjunct associate professor at the University of Maryland Global Campus, where he teaches various human resources classes.
Ripley earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Virginia and received his Master of Science in Management from the University Maryland University College. He is an active member of the Charles County Chamber of Commerce and a regular driver for Charles County Meals on Wheels, Inc. He is also the past president of the Kiwanis Club of La Plata, Maryland, and the former president of the United Way of Charles County's board of directors.
Walter Simmons
Board Chair of Maryland Nonprofits
President and CEO of Employ Prince George's
Walter L. Simmons is the founding president and CEO of Employ Prince George’s, Inc. and the executive director of the Prince George’s County Workforce Development Board. Under Walter’s leadership, Employ Prince George’s and the Prince George’s County Workforce Development Board created the first local public workforce system in the United States, which was designed as a free membership network. Since 2018, Walter has led Employ Prince George’s in serving over 90,000 job seekers and 8,500 businesses, as well as leading over 15,000 residents to secure employment.
Simmons is a volunteer board member for many local, state, and national organizations. Nationally, Walter is the vice chair of the board of directors for the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals. He is also a member of the board of directors for the National Association of Workforce Boards. In Maryland, he serves as the chair of the board of directors for the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations. He is also a board member for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.
Along with national honors, Simmons has twice been recognized as one of Maryland's Most Admired CEOs, one of Maryland’s Most Influential Professionals, and a 40 Under 40 in both Maryland and the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan area.
Angela Walters Small
Public Information Officer and Director of Communications
Angela Walters Small is the public information officer and director of communications for the College of Southern Maryland. Prior to this role, she was a public information specialist for the Calvert County Government. Small holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from American University and has more than 35 years of communication experience.
Born and raised in Southern Maryland, Small spent the first seven years of her career as a journalist, photographer, and editor-in-chief working at weekly newspapers throughout Southern Maryland. From there, she spent 10 years with Constellation Energy providing corporate communications, media relations, leadership and employee communications, and crisis communications support at the Fortune 200 company's Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant and Constellation Nuclear Services.
Small took a few years to stay home and raise her newborn twin daughters in 2004. Then, she returned to the workforce in 2011 as the manager of strategic leadership support and site contract lead for OMNITEC Solutions, a defense contractor at NAS Patuxent River. In that role, she served as the lead speechwriter and supported all leadership communication efforts for the commander of Naval Air Systems Command.
Small is currently a member of the Leadership Southern Maryland's board of directors (Class of 2016); a non-voting member of the Calvert County Economic Development Advisory Commission; and the volunteer public information officer for the Maryland Fire-Rescue Services Memorial Foundation. She and her husband Robert live in Calvert County with their adult daughters and two sweet and aged rescued fur babies.
Kristan Smith
CEO
Kristan Smith is the CEO and managing partner of MND Suite Consulting, a minority and economically disadvantaged woman-owned business that specializes in orchestrating business transformation through strategically aligning organizational strategy, program development, and workforce transformation. Headquartered in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, MND Suite Consulting is a small firm that creates specialized business process improvement solutions for both public and commercial clients. Despite being founded in 2021 and in the nascent stages of maturation, MND Suite Consulting thrives on strategic partnerships that infuse the firm with the confidence and acumen of a seasoned entity. These alliances, built on diversity and collaboration, amplify the firm's capabilities, ensuring capacity assurance and a steadfast commitment to clients and stakeholders.
With over 15 years of consulting experience, Smith's journey has been marked by influential roles in organizational strategy and workforce transformation. She has had the opportunity to hone her expertise through esteemed institutions like the U.S. Department of Health, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, as well as major commercial entities. Smith's mastery of human capital development, strategic planning, and change management is reflected in her ability to craft business process improvement plans that intricately align with organizational missions, fostering efficiency and sustainable growth.
Rooted in a legacy of service, Smith is deeply committed to community upliftment. Beyond her professional commitments, she actively donates her time to provide advisory services to small businesses and nonprofit organizations. Her philanthropic endeavors extend to supporting initiatives such as the PowHERful Foundation, the House of Ruth, and the Laurel Advocacy Group.
Smith's commitment to learning is evident in her academic achievements. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in human resource management from the University of Maryland. Further enriching her knowledge, she earned a master’s degree in project management from George Washington University. Currently enrolled in an executive master’s program at Harvard University, Smith remains at the forefront of industry advancements.
Smith's leadership extends beyond traditional boundaries, profoundly impacting both business and society. At MND Suite Consulting, she guides the company with a visionary approach emphasizing societal contribution and transformative change, going beyond mere financial success.
Stuart White
Chief Learning Officer
Stuart White is the chief learning officer (CLO) for the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division. As the organization’s CLO, White serves the command with the strategic design and implementation of plans and programs that support the organization’s needs and individual learning needs.
With over 40 years of government service, White has a wealth of experience. He was an officer in the United States Marine Corps for 30 years and a civilian government employee for 14 years. He has experienced various personal and professional situations that continue to shape who he is and his growth. He has witnessed and interacted with people inside and outside the United States at their best and at their worst.
After retiring from the Marine Corps in 2010, White became a senior-level citizen with the Training and Education Command of the Marine Corps. In this role, he focused on forging a new organization as the deputy director, and he led it to become a recognized center of excellence for the ground combat element of the service. White has also worked internationally by serving as NATO’s national chair for urban operations training and education for four years.
He has been published, and he holds a concept copyright that illuminates how the integration of AI, technology, learning design, and subject matter expertise provides the pathway to achieving an intellectual edge over the competition. White helped lead the development of the Marine Corps’ strategic plan to transition from an industrial age model of learning. He was also a contributor and reviewer of the Marine Corps’ newest doctrinal publication on learning.
White has a bachelor’s degree in management, as well as a master’s degree and a doctorate in organizational leadership. His personal military awards include the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart. He also has several awards for his recognized leadership excellence.
Wendy Wolff
Director of Consulting and Strategic Engagement
Activating and coordinating community responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic was how Wendy Wolff began her career in the nonprofit sector. Her early career helped her to build a strong understanding of the value and role of the community in program planning and policy development.
Wolff brings nearly 30 years of diverse consulting experiences to her role at Maryland Nonprofits. She has collaborated with government agencies, universities, nonprofit organizations, and faith-based organizations to enhance the quality of life within many communities throughout the United States. She uses her strategic thinking skills to help clients synthesize information from wide-ranging sources and reframe problems while uncovering root causes to find refreshing, creative, and effective solutions. Over the past two decades, Wolff has helped hundreds of organizations and their people to create brighter futures for the communities in which they serve. Her excitement in working with the members of Maryland Nonprofits is infectious. She values the genius that every person brings to their role in the sector and works diligently to elevate any person that she engages with.
Wolff holds a master's degree in public health from New York University. She has resided as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver and as an associate faculty member at Indian River State College. Wolff is a licensed consultant with the Standards for Excellence Institute®. Her first book, “The Letter Writing Project,” was published in August 2014. She is the author of the workplace culture handbook, "Peace and Possibility in the Workplace," and "The Clouds Look Different From Here."
Laura Wright
Apprenticeship and Training Representative
As a seasoned professional dedicated to connecting people through education, knowledge, and resources, Laura Wright thrives on creating pathways for individuals and organizations alike. With a keen focus on bridging the gap between talent and opportunity, she brings excitement and clarity to those navigating the journey of employment and workforce development.
Wright's expertise lies in providing informative and engaging presentations to diverse audiences, including businesses, job seekers, and youth. Through dynamic discussions, she demystifies the complexities of workforce grants, funding opportunities, and educational resources. Drawing from a rich tapestry of services spanning federal, state, county, nonprofit, and for-profit sectors, she offers comprehensive insights tailored to each audience's needs.
At the heart of Wright's work is a commitment to fostering collaboration and synergy among stakeholders. By leveraging her extensive network and knowledge of retention models, apprenticeship grants, and funding mechanisms, she empowers individuals and organizations to build sustainable pathways to success.
Whether guiding businesses toward strategic talent acquisition or equipping job seekers and youth with the tools for career advancement, Wright is dedicated to creating impactful change in the workforce landscape. Through education, empowerment, and connection, she is honored to play a role in building stronger, more resilient communities where every individual can thrive.
Corae Young
CEO
Young Consulting Services, LLC
Corae Young has been working in the nonprofit and faith-based fields for almost 20 years. She has extensive experience in grant writing, partnership development, and program development and implementation. She has a Master of Public Administration in Nonprofit Management and bachelor’s degrees in sociology and marketing. Much of her nonprofit experience has been spent serving as the chief program officer at LifeStyles, a Southern Maryland nonprofit that focuses on human and social services activities. She has also assisted faith-based entities along the East Coast in developing programs, policies, and partnerships that meet the greater needs of the community. Young is a licensed consultant with the Standards for Excellence Institute®.