Howard Silberstein
Director of Business Development
Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Howard Silberstein has spent over 30 years in fundraising and cause marketing at Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC; Rebuilding Together; the Woman’s National Democratic Club; the Washington Animal Rescue League.  He is one of the hospital co-founders of the Children’s Miracle Network.

Howard is currently the Director of Business Development for the national organization the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell).

He is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and the Promotion Marketing Association (PMA).

Howard has presented at international and regional DMA conferences, PMA conferences and at NACHRI conferences. He serves as a panel judge for PMA’s annual advertising promotions awards program.

Kevin Crysler
Director of Development
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Kevin Crysler is the director of development for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian Institution where he oversees a four to five million dollar annual fundraising effort while laying the foundation for an endowment and capital campaign of $35 to $50 million.  As a senior member of the museum’s leadership team, he works closely with the director and the museum’s board on matters of resource management and strategic planning.  He is also part of the External Relations leadership team for the Smithsonian Institution where he is engaged in the planning for an institution-wide campaign of at least one billion dollars.

Prior to coming to the Smithsonian, Mr. Crysler spent five years at Johns Hopkins University, moving from Associate Director of Development to Director of Development of the School of Professional Studies (SPSBE) and finally serving as Assistant Dean of the School of Education.  While at Johns Hopkins he led the SPSBE development effort to the early completion of a $20 million campaign, and served as a senior staff member on the University’s $3.2 billion campaign.  After the University secured a $50 million gift to launch the Carey Business School he helped lead the transformation of SPSBE into the Johns Hopkins School of Education and the Carey Business School. 

Mr. Crysler came to Maryland from Southern California in September 2001, leaving his position as Director of Marketing and Communications with Opera Pacific in Orange County to serve as Director of Development for the Baltimore Opera.  Sadly, late in 2008, both companies declared bankruptcy.  He has also served as Executive Director of Imagination Celebration of Orange County and Director of the Atlanta Opera Studio. 

Rebkha Atnafou
Executive Director
The After-School Institute

Rebkha Atnafou is the Director of The After-School Institute (TASI).  She works diligently to advance TASI’s mission to build the capacity of after-school program providers to deliver high quality services in a caring, supportive environment that allows children and youth to develop civic, academic, artistic and athletic talents and skills.  Rebkha serves on the 21st CCLC board of the Maryland State Department of Education, The Out-of-School Time Resource Center at University of Pennsylvania, and The Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University.  She has expanded the work of TASI to reach outside of Baltimore, establishing an office in Montgomery County, providing training for various state agencies in Maryland, and organizing the annual Eastern Regional Conference for Afterschool covering nine mid-Atlantic states.  She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from SUNY Binghamton.

Roger-Mark De Souza
Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations
Sierra Club

Roger-Mark De Souza is the Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations, where he plans, directs and implements the organization?s foundation and corporate fundraising program, supporting the Sierra Club?s work at the local, regional, national, and international levels. Before joining the Sierra Club in 2007, he was the Technical Director for Population, Health and Environment at the Population Reference Bureau. He directed strategic planning, technical oversight, fundraising and outreach for PRB?s environmental work in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the United States. Mr. De Souza has 15 years of progressive fundraising,
programmatic, project/grant management and field operations experience, including a proven track record in mentoring, managing and strengthening teams consisting of managers, subject matter experts, and operations
staff. Before that he worked at the World Resources Institute and the Pan American Development Foundation.