With more than 25 years of leadership experience in strategic thinking and planning, integrated and brand marketing, market research, and student recruiting, Bob’s innovative work has been featured at hundreds of professional conferences, as well as in higher education’s major marketing publications, including Currents, Journal of College Admissions, Admissions Strategist, University Business, and College & University. He has authored seven books on integrated marketing, brand marketing, innovation, and strategic planning. Prior to joining Stamats in 1988, Bob taught and worked as an administrator at The Ohio State University, Denison University, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and Oregon Health Sciences University.
Amy serves as the editor for the publications produced by university development, including the office’s magazine, Impact, which just completed a total redesign. In this role, she also works with Virginia Tech’s Women and Leadership in Philanthropy initiative and is responsible for the public relations functions for that initiative. Amy came to Virginia Tech in 2002 as a corporate and foundation relations editor and served as a member of a brand understanding team that won the Virginia Tech University Relations Communications Excellence Team Award in 2010. She is the chapter adviser to the Virginia Tech chapter of Alpha Chi Omega and co-chair of the fundraising committee for the emerging Blacksburg Children’s Museum.
Margie completed a master’s in social service at Bryn Mawr School of Social Work and Social Research in Pennsylvania. She is a South African qualified counseling psychologist. Margie’s career spans more than twenty years in the fields of education and counseling at the university and college level, both in Johannesburg and Toronto. A highlight of her career was being part of the end of apartheid and helping black students integrate into university life. Since 2006, Margie has coordinated the SMILE (Student Mentoring in Life and Education) program, a major contributor to student retention at Seneca and considered one of the leading postsecondary mentoring programs in Canada. Margie has been working on developing different models of mentoring to meet the needs of different program areas. Over the past year Margie has developed a first of its kind pre-arrival mentoring program for international students. Margie also teaches psychology and conducts workshops in emotional intelligence for student leaders.
Joining McMaster’s office of alumni advancement in 1998, Karen was appointed to her current role in 2006. Previously serving as the associate director, she is currently responsible for managing the university’s alumni relations and annual giving efforts. Karen has worked on two of McMaster’s fundraising project teams – one for the University Student Centre and the other dedicated to the Athletics and Recreation Centre and Stadium Campaign. She came to McMaster from positions in the Canadian Intramural Recreation Association of Ontario and Mohawk College.
Jeff is responsible for the management of the McMaster’s Thode Science and Engineering Library, Innis Business Library and Mills Library for the Social Sciences and Humanities, Classroom Audio Visual Services, and the Lyons New Media Centre. With more than 20 years of experience working in academic and public libraries, he has held positions including associate dean at the Wayne State University Library System and the head of systems at the Wright State University Libraries. Jeff has spoken internationally on a variety of topics including digital library initiatives, Web 2.0, organizational change, and library innovation.
Gretchen is a global engagement strategist, author, and academic with 27 years’ experience across five continents. She advises CEOs, CHROs, governing boards, and policymakers on best practices in EdTech and other creative strategies and solutions that enable institutions, companies, organizations, and governments to identify, track, and manage relationships with their global stakeholders and brand ambassadors. Gretchen is the author of Being Global: Making the Case for International Alumni Relations (CASE Books, 2011), the International Travel Handbook (Academic Impressions, 2014), and has edited Staying Global: how international alumni relations advances the agenda (EAIE, 2015). She is currently co-writing NAFSA’s first book on global alumni relations (expected publication in 2021). Gretchen received her BA and MA from Boston College, and her EdD from the University of Pennsylvania. She is affiliated with the University at Albany’s School of Education as an International Education Leadership Fellow. She is based in New South Wales, Australia.
Jeff served as executive director of the Council of Ivy Group Presidents and commissioner of the Ivy League from 1984 to 2009, following nine years as a special assistant to University of North Carolina President William Friday and four years as a federal civil rights attorney, during which time he helped write the original regulation for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. He has been active for years in governance of the NCAA and in the Collegiate Commissioners Association and of the National Association of College and University Attorneys. He is a past editor of NACUA’s Journal of College and University Law and was named an NACUA Fellow in 1999. Currently, Jeff is a senior associate at Alden & Associates and a consultant on financing college athletics with the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. He has worked on sustainable athletics with both the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, and consults frequently with college athletic departments and leagues about a wide range of program issues.
As a long-time athletics administrator in NCAA Division I, Andi focuses on feasibility studies, Title IX reviews, compliance reviews, and strategic planning. Andi had a 27-year career at Ball State University as an assistant professor, assistant athletics trainer, and, starting in 1983, director of intercollegiate athletics for women under the school’s split department system. In 1995, after a 12-year tenure heading the women’s athletics program, the university combined its men’s and women’s programs and selected Andi as the first-ever director of intercollegiate athletics for its newly combined program. She served for eight years on the NCAA Committee on Athletic Certification and four years on the NCAA Division I Management Council and served as Interim Executive Director for NACWAA (National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators) from January through March of 2010.
