Alumless

Quinnipiac just went public with “For the Ambitious,” its first-ever comprehensive campaign at $160 million. Join and Chris with Nick Wormley, VP for Advancement (and a Quinnipiac alum), on building momentum through the public phase, the priorities underneath the goal, and standing up a culture of philanthropy at a young, fast-rising university. Plus a candid look at meeting the moment with NIL —...

For this Alumless World edition, Ryan and Chris go global — and a little personal, since the University of Queensland is one of Ryan’s alma maters. They’re joined from Brisbane by Jennifer Karlson, Vice-President for Advancement and Community Engagement at UQ, for a candid look at building a culture of philanthropy outside the US model. An American who left the University of Wisconsin for Brisbane...

Most advancement conversations are about doing more with less. This one’s the opposite: what happens when a university is growing this fast? Ryan and Chris talk with Brooks Hull, Vice President for University Advancement at Texas State, about building engagement and fundraising to match a genuine rocket ship — 47,000+ students and climbing, a move into the Pac-12, and R1 status on the horizon. Bro...

Annie Bastida Quade is back for a second appearance on Alumless this week. After years leading engagement at UTEP, Annie now serves as Assistant Vice President for Development & Organizational Strategy, and she joins Ryan and Chris to talk about what the crossover has taught her about integrated advancement. Join us for a candid conversation about alignment that goes well past the usual talkin...

Trinity Christian College closed its doors this summer. Ryan Catherwood and Chris Marshall sit down with Mackenzi Huyser — Trinity's VP for Advancement and Chief Academic Officer, and a Trinity graduate herself — for an honest, moving conversation about leading advancement and alumni engagement through a closure. How do you keep fundraising after you've announced the end? What do you owe donors, s...

The field keeps saying dues models are dead — so why does Penn State run the largest successful dues-paying alumni membership in the world? Join Ryan and Chris live with Reggie Bustinza, the new AVP for Alumni Relations and CEO of the Penn State Alumni Association, as he reflects on his first weeks leading an 820,000-strong alumni community. We'll get into why the membership model still works at P...

Ryan hosts a panel with three members of the Caltech advancement team — Mario Peraza (AVP, Alumni Relations & executive sponsor), Andrew Chang (Director of Advancement Analytics & the data scientist behind the model), and Mark Longo (Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives & project SME) — on how they built Caltech's next-level alumni engagement scoring model and dashboard, and how th...

Ryan and Chris sit down with Nicole Kempton, Director of Alumni Engagement at Imperial College London, to reflect on her first year in the role. Nicole shares how she's turning sky-high alumni pride into real connection across a community of 270,000 in 200+ countries, what's genuinely different about advancement in the UK versus the US, and how a "science for humanity" mission and a design-thinkin...

Most advancement teams spend their weeks reacting to whatever's next on the calendar. The teams that do truly great work do something harder: they step back and design the conditions that make excellence possible. In this episode of Alumless,   Ryan   and   Chris   sit down with   Shara Freeman Hoefel   — Assistant Vice Chancellor for Alumni Relations at   UC San...

Every alumni organization eventually hits a season where everything seems to change at once. For Northwestern, that season is now. In this episode of Alumless, Ryan and Chris sit down with Lindsay Vahl Dean — Assistant Vice President for Alumni Engagement and Executive Director of the Northwestern Alumni Association — to talk about leading through it. Lindsay shares how she approaches organiz...

At institutions with centuries of history, traditions can be both a source of strength and a barrier to change. On this episode of Alumless,   Ryan   and   Chris   sit down with Carolyn Gray Kimberlin, Vice President for Alumni Relations at Dartmouth College, to explore the tension between preserving institutional identity and evolving alumni engagement for a changing community...

On this week’s Alumless, Kim and Chris sit down with Scott Rosevear, Senior Vice President for University Strategy and Advancement at Bucknell University, to explore what happens when advancement is positioned as part of the institution’s strategic core, not downstream from it. The conversation centers on a simple but consequential shift: aligning engagement, philanthropy, and institutional priori...

In Australia, university philanthropy is still finding its footing, which makes it one of the most interesting places to watch what comes next. On this episode of Alumless World, Ryan sits down with Margo Powell, Chief Advancement Officer at La Trobe University, to talk about what it really takes to build a campaign in an environment where donor culture isn’t fully formed yet. Margo pulls back the...

What does it take to truly align a campus around alumni engagement? On this episode of Alumless, Ryan and Chris sit down with Kris Bosman, Chief Alumni Officer at the University of Utah, to explore how collaboration across campus can create scale and deepen alumni connections. Using Utah’s 175th Anniversary as a case study, Kris shares how her team led a university-wide effort that brought togethe...

In this special announcement, Ryan Catherwood introduces Speaking Engagement — a new professional development designed as a “conference on engagement that never sleeps.” Speaking Engagement brings together weekly Keynote interviews, Breakout conversations, articles, and live Agora events to create a continuous learning experience for engagement professionals. Instead of attending a conference once...

What does it really take to step into a new advancement role and chart a new course in year one? This week on the show, Ryan and Chris Marshall chat with Jim Broschart, Vice President for Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement at the University of Louisville, to reflect on the realities of leading through transition. Jim shares what he saw in his first year at Louisville and how he assessed the health...

What happens when advancement communications is no longer a support function, but a central driver of alumni engagement? On this episode of Alumless, Lori Hurvitz, Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations at Tulane University, joins Ryan and Chris to explore what it means to align communications and engagement under one unified strategy. Lori shares the thinking behind Tulane’s recent reorgan...

In this episode of "Alumless Takes," Ryan Catherwood and Nick Kallail discuss the evolving role of regional engagement in alumni associations. They explore the effectiveness of formal versus informal volunteer-run organizations, with Nick emphasizing the importance of building flexible, community-driven networks that align with alumni interests. The conversation highlights the shift from tradition...

What do alumni really think about their alma mater today, and what does that mean for the future of advancement? On this super sized episode of Alumless, Ryan and Chris sit down with Howard Heevner, Co-Founder of the The National Alumni Survey, Executive Director of Annual Programs at the University of California, Berkeley, and Vice President and Consultant with CMAC, to unpack insights from the 2...

Metrics are shaping the future of alumni engagement, but only if institutions are willing to use them strategically. On this bonus episode of Alumless World, Ryan and Nicole Hess Kempton are joined by special guest Barbara Dick, Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations at the University of Toronto, for a global conversation on innovation in alumni engagement metrics. Barbara reflects on her p...

Mentoring has long been part of alumni engagement, but what does it really take to make mentoring flourish at scale? Is that even possible? On this episode of Alumless, Ryan is joined by Kim Infanti and special guest Allison McWilliams, Assistant Vice President for Mentoring and Alumni Personal & Career Development at Wake Forest University, for a wide-ranging conversation on the evolving role...

In this week's episode of Alumless Takes, Ryan interviews Meg Lysy, the Senior Director for Alumni Relations at Dartmouth College. They discuss the various alumni initiatives in the admissions process, including the long-standing alumni interviewing program and the Dartmouth Book Award. Meg shares insights on how alumni engagement enhances the admissions experience for applicants and the organizat...

As universities rethink how they support students and engage alumni, some have been experimenting with a bold structural shift: bringing alumni engagement and career services together under the advancement umbrella. On this episode of Alumless, Ryan and Chris sit down with John Jensen, Executive Director of Alumni and Career Services at Washington and Lee University, to explore what happens when t...

At a time when many universities are moving toward fully integrated advancement models, other successful structures exist, like the one at Georgia Tech. On this episode of Alumless, Ryan and Chris are joined by Janet Kinard, Vice President for Engagement at the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, to explore how an independent, alumni-led association can thrive alongside a separate foundation and deve...

For this week's episode of Alumless Takes, Ryan is joined by Ashley Watts, the Director of Annual Giving at Georgia State University, who shares insights from the busy end-of-year giving season. She discusses the lessons learned from video appeals, the importance of intentional messaging, and the role of data in enhancing fundraising strategies. Ashley emphasizes the need for collaboration and add...