Most Improved Alumni Relations Initiative Award
USC Marshall School of Business and USC Leventhal School of Accounting 
Graduate Programs Reunion Weekend

This was the second formal year for this program. Over the past year, there was a remarkable increase in alumni engagement and participation, with numbers growing from 129 alumni in 2022, representing six-degree programs and six class years, to 235 alumni in 2023, encompassing 10-degree programs while maintaining representation across six class years.

The cornerstone of their success was the activation and involvement of 20 dedicated alumni who took on the roles of Graduate Programs Reunion Ambassadors. The Ambassadors were tasked with contacting their classmates, getting their classmates registered for the weekend, and helping the team update their classmates’ alumni profiles. The ambassadors also initiated class notes and gathered throwback photos, which created a vibrant and nostalgic atmosphere that resonated with alumni. This initiative significantly enhanced the sense of community and connection among graduates.

The Ambassadors also hosted class receptions, providing alumni with opportunities to reconnect, network, and celebrate their shared experiences. These events were pivotal in fostering a stronger alumni network and encouraging ongoing engagement.

The reunion weekend featured a variety of events and activities designed to appeal to a wide range of alumni interests like professional development headshots, experiential learning sessions, updates from the School, and social events.

By leveraging the enthusiasm and commitment of their alumni ambassadors, they not only increased participation from year one, but also further strengthened the bonds within their alumni community.

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Most Innovative New Initiative
Penn State Smeal College of Business
Smeal in Your City

At the 2022 ABSAP Conference, Fuqua and Daniels shared about their respective events “Fuqua Around the World” and “Toast to Krannert”. The Smeal Alumni Relations team was inspired by this idea of alumni gathering to celebrate their business school in a variety of locations, all in one day. 

They were excited about the thought of meeting their alumni “where they are”, especially in cities where they don’t typically host events on a regular basis, so planning commenced!

Much thought and detail went into planning this first event, such as how the cities and hosts would be selected, what Smeal would pay for, and how branding elements and training documents would be created. In addition to inviting Smeal alumni, they also chose to include graduate students.

Ultimately, on February 7, 2023, the team hosted their inaugural “Smeal In Your City” event at 11 different locations. 600 alumni and graduate students registered for the events. The group size varied with each city, but whether it was a table of 5 enjoying intimate conversation in London or a large group of 100 mingling in NYC, the feedback that the Smeal team received was extremely positive. Social media posts generated enthusiasm through shared photos during the evening and the following day. 

Attendees shared that it was really nice to meet people in person, learn about their Penn State journeys, make friends, and network in a casual atmosphere. 

With each decision the Smeal team made throughout the planning process, they kept future scalability in mind. Their goal is to gradually add more cities each year, so that they can continue to expand the footprint of Smeal In Your City and harness the power of the alumni network.

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Outstanding Partnership Award
University of Washington Foster School of Business
23rd Annual Celebration of African American Alumni Achievement

During the planning process for the 2023 fiscal year, Foster’s alumni engagement team offered to orchestrate the school’s 23rd Annual Celebration of African American Alumni Achievement, a role previously taken by the Office of Inclusion and Diversity. The result? They formed a committee of internal stakeholders and partners to guarantee trust. They listened to previous attendees. They embraced uncertainty to create an impactful and energetic celebration that upended tradition and set a new tone for the future. They brought in couches and cocktail rounds instead of tables of ten, they produced videos to cut down on podium time, dropped the iPhone with Spotify and hired a deejay.

The result was overwhelmingly positive. So, did they rest on their  laurels, rinse and repeat, for 2024? Oh, hell no. They convinced their Associate Director of Inclusion and Diversity to start the program by leading the audience in singing the Black National Anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing!” They brought in a photo booth so guests could walk away with branded photo strips. They made sure every vendor was a Black-owned business and even had the winery and brewery owners on site to talk to guests about their products. And while it wasn’t flashy, they took feedback from 2023 and made a significant change – renaming it the Celebration of Black Alumni Achievement to better reflect the community. 

Two years before the Alumni Engagement team’s involvement, the celebration unfolded like any standard gathering in a hotel ballroom—dozens of round tables where attendees took their seats, chatted with guests at either elbow, then nibbled at the rubber chicken while listening to a stream of people who approached the podium. And it never ended on time. Everyone has been delighted by the changes and even more so by the partnership we’ve forged with the Office of Inclusion and Diversity. As their Dean always says, “Better together, better tomorrow.” 

Most Improved Alumni Relations Initiative Award
Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame
Mendoza Rally

Prior to COVID, Mendoza threw 3-6 lavish Saturday afternoon tailgates each football season. These tailgates were ticketed events for alumni of their graduate business programs, annual giving society members, current faculty staff, and graduate students. The tailgates would average over 1,000 people at a net cost of about $25,000 per event.

While seemingly very successful on the surface, the event series had major challenges including the fact that only about 150 of these 1,000 attendees were alumni of Mendoza; most others were family and friends. In addition, the planning of these costly events were an overwhelming undertaking for the alumni relations staff.

In 2023, the alumni relations team pivoted these events from their existing structure to focusing more on having an impact on students, and transformed the Saturday tailgates into a Friday afternoon tailgate-style networking and social event called the “Mendoza Rally”. The transformed event has now become a focal point for the college’s fall programming. These events have a measurable ROI to the college, specifically, the number of student-alumni interactions, or “Alumni Impact Points.”

The Mendoza Rally events take place from 4-6 pm each Friday before every home game, and fill many of the college’s strategic needs, including the ability to host the event on every game weekend, eliminating confusion and generating consistency and reliability.

Now, all Mendoza alumni are invited and graduate student attendance has been much higher, giving them an opportunity to connect directly with their alumni each week. Without the need for labor-intensive registration and ticketing systems or extensive decorations and AV needs, the event has become considerably less resource and labor-intense, despite doing more total events.

The connections and conversations that have come from this transformed event have had an impact throughout this academic year, to the extent that Mendoza decided to throw one for their Spring game in 2023.

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Most Innovative New Initiative
Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa
Life Lessons Webinar Series

The Tippie College’s Life Lessons Webinar Series ran from August 2022 through March 2023. After a co-worker dealt with her father’s early passing, the team realized that many people are not prepared for this phase of life and rarely have the documentation completed. This led to a discussion of what financial and legal processes people should handle at every stage of their life. And thus, the Life Lessons Webinar Series was born.

After several brainstorming sessions, the team developed seven webinars including:

1. First Steps: Finding your financial footing
2. All’s Fair in Love and Money: How money can affect your personal relationships
3. Building and Protecting Your Nest
4. Getting Your Ducks in a Row: The documents you need and the challenging discussions you need to have
5. Ready, Set, Retire: Planning for your golden years
6. Death is in the Details
7. Last, But Not Least: Tax considerations for life’s milestones

The speakers provided handouts that they shared and all webinars were recorded, shared on the college’s YouTube channel, with links sent to all registrants after the program ran.

Each program included a diverse panel of experts. The professionals included an HR benefit specialist, marriage counselor, financial planner, estate lawyer, social worker, insurance expert, and a funeral director. Considerable time was spent shaping the programs, managing multiple speakers, helping with slides as needed, and coordinating handouts.

In total, there were more than 3,000 registrations, with an average of more than 400 registrations for each program. As of May 12th, there have been over 1,000 YouTube views of this series. There were 23 panelists throughout the series, 20 of whom were University of Iowa alumni and 11 of those were specifically Iowa business school alumni. The program included 25 different handouts or downloads.

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Outstanding Partnership Award
Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University
Student trek alumni event partnership

For several years, the Rice Business Career Development Office has organized “Treks” where students visit a city, meet some employers, learn what it’s like to live there and gain information on the industries in the city.

After the return to in-person activity, the Rice Business Alumni Relations team realized they needed to seize every opportunity that came their way to be with students, and partnering with the Career Development Office on Treks was one of those opportunities. So last year, an alumni relations staff member joined three Treks and planned a student / alumni event, and the cost was split between the two offices.

The alumni relations team attended Treks and networking events in New York City, Seattle, and the Bay Area. Students on the Trek were required to attend, creating a built-in student audience for the alumni in attendance to meet. All Rice Business alumni were invited, making it a terrific engagement touch point. The team’s plan in future years is to have one alumni relations staff member on every Trek.

In addition to partnering on these Treks, the alumni relations team and the Career Development Office have found other successful ways to partner on an ongoing basis, including an international student welcome happy hour, mock interviews, lunches, and panels. Approximately 240 alumni participated in Treks and the other collaborative efforts last year.

Due to this growing partnership with the alumni relations and CDO teams, many more alumni have indicated interest in participating in events for the purpose of assisting students with career development in the future!

Most Improved Alumni Relations Initiative Award
Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa
Tippie Women Summit

In a post-pandemic world, we all struggled with how to utilize the best features of both in-person and virtual events. In the past, the Tippie Women Summit has always been an in-person event for female alumni, students, and business professionals. The in-person event took place on a Saturday in March and typically drew no more than 100 people. 

But, when the pandemic hit, the team at Tippie pivoted the Tippie Women Summit to a virtual-only event in 2021. The five events over the month of March included alumni panel discussions and faculty presentations and drew more than 600 participants with an average rating of 4.54 (on a scale of 1-5). 

In 2022, they wanted to bring the best aspects of both options and the result was one in-person event with networking and 3 virtual webinars, one of which included watch parties, which provided a way for their Graduate Management Programs to bring together students who had been predominantly virtual over the last two years with alumni of the program as well as prospective students.

Tippie Women Summit 2022 achieved more than 700 people participating in the webinars (with an average rating of 4.79), almost 100 people participating in the in-person event, and another 50 people participating in the watch parties. In addition, the programs on YouTube have more than 800 views. 

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Most Innovative New Initiative
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin
Board and Council Leader Exchange

In September 2021, the McCombs School of Business developed a new initiative called Board and Council Leader Exchange. This new program brought the leaders of each of the school’s 26 alumni boards and councils together for a best practices review, networking, planning, and additional school activities. 

During the spring of 2021, the alumni chair of the Center for Global Business Advisory Board reached out to ask for a way to connect with other board chairs. He hoped to learn from his counterparts on other boards and to build a support network for fellow board leaders. 

The alumni chair of the Dean’s Advisory Council was asked to create a format and agenda for the inaugural meeting. The goals were to provide an opportunity for the board leaders to get to know their fellow leaders, to provide a forum for exchanging ideas of how to align board work with the strategic goals of the school, and to create resources for continued connection. All of these goals were met during the meeting, which was held during Homecoming weekend. It was also successful because it aligned with the mission of the McComb’s Alumni Network. 

Representatives from 17 boards attended (65% of their boards). Afterward, they surveyed the leaders and received very positive feedback. They voted to meet twice per year, with the second meeting being virtual. For the second virtual meeting last March, they had representatives from 18 boards (69% of their boards) and shared the recording with all leaders.

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Outstanding Partnership Award
Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin – Madison
“Trusted to Lead” Brand Campaign

The Wisconsin School of Business Alumni Relations team partnered with the Marketing and Strategic Communications team to develop a new brand campaign featuring the stories of six alumni who are trusted to lead where there is no blueprint.

In recent years, Wisconsin School of Business has evolved its degrees and programs in response to the evolving demands for business education. As a result, they also recognized a need to also evolve its brand to reflect the school’s current mission, values, and educational offerings and to break through the cluttered higher education market.

After quite a bit of brand tracking research and an updated brand platform, the marketing team turned to an external brand launch through a strategic partnership with the Alumni Relations team. The Alumni Relations team identified a diverse group of successful alumni to potentially feature in a brand campaign, eventually winnowing the group down to six alumni from a range of industries, geographies, and job functions. 

After countless hours brainstorming concepts, writing (and rewriting) scripts, scouting locations, prepping alumni, reviewing video, and creating website assets, in January 2022, Wisconsin Business School launched a new brand campaign called “Trusted to Lead”. It was a national campaign featuring video (on channels such as Hulu and ESPN), social media, photography, storytelling, and a custom-built web landing page. It was truly a collaborative effort from start to finish.

By all measures, the brand campaign has been a success. Paid media metrics are performing above average and above expectations, as is social media engagements and website visits. This investment in the brand showcasing alumni who are the pride points and proof points of the school is positioning Wisconsin Business School to build brand equity and have a positive impact on recruiting and philanthropy.

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Outstanding New Professional
Loren Fentroy, Associate Director, Digital Engagement and Marketing, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

Loren Fentroy joined the Berkeley Haas Alumni Relations team in the winter of 2020, directly before the pandemic altered how we all manage alumni relations. In her time at Berkeley Haas she has completely revamped how their team manages alumni volunteers, alumni volunteer requests and alumni speaker requests.

Loren created a VIP engagement program, managing all alumni volunteers and volunteer requests through a newly launched SalesForce database. A few of the highlights of her work include:

-Receiving volunteer requests through online forms that she has built 

-Collaborating with giving colleagues to solicit suggestions on tracked donors to feature in volunteer requests.

-Tracking engagement in a newly formed Salesforce database that she helped to build and that she consistently populates.

-Sharing volunteer lists every Monday with Development & Alumni colleagues at Berkeley Haas to showcase the depth and breadth of alumni volunteer involvement.

-Training student leaders on how to request alumni involvement in their various activities and conferences.

Loren has created innovative and sustainable ways to track alumni engagement volunteers in order to highlight the work of the Berkeley Hass Alumni Relations team!

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Outstanding New Professional
Stacey Sharp, Assistant Director of Alumni Engagement, Krannert School of Management, Purdue University

Stacey joined the Krannert Alumni Relations team in the fall of 2019 and has had a very impactful start to her career in alumni relations. Stacey was hired into a new role on Krannert’s Alumni Relations team. Her primary responsibility was going to be to create meaningful and unique engagement schedules and opportunities for alumni as they visited campus for varying reasons. The objective was to create a personalized experience for each of the alumni who visit the Krannert School and deepen their engagement and relationships with our students and faculty. 

However, the pandemic upended this plan, and needless to say, it would be at least another year before visitors would be welcome back on Purdue’s campus, and Stacey was forced to very quickly pivot to the role she was brand new to.

Stacey has not only been able to adapt to new ways of engaging with alumni, she’s taken the lead on several new initiatives to help the team improve ways we reach alumni. In fall 2020, she led an initiative to host virtual happy hours with reunion classes and has been integral in planning virtual and hybrid versions of the Krannert Alumni Conference. Not only has she been able to leverage her events experience to help better organize and elevate event offerings, she’s hit the ground running with support of volunteer engagement programming. This past fall, she managed a student-to-alumni program that paired 560 students to 317 alumni for informational interviews. She is very well organized and driven, and you can rarely tell that she’s still learning this work. Many of our center directors and faculty consider her their go-to for their alumni engagement requests.

At her core, Stacey is a customer service professional, and that is a skill set that serves her, and the department very well in her role. She carries a can-do attitude and positive energy with her when she’s interacting with alumni, faculty, students and her team. 

Most Improved Alumni Relations Initiative Award
Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
Maryland Smith Women Inspire

In February 2012, the Smith School Office of Alumni Relations started the Women Leading Women event as a celebration of women from the classroom to the C-suite. During these events, attendees learned how to embrace the challenges women face in the workplace. Each year, the Office of Alumni Relations recognized one Maryland Smith alumna excelling in business during the event. Initially, the event included a fireside chat-style conversation with the honoree and a Maryland Smith professor. The conversation was followed by a reception where attendees could network.

In 2019, the event was open to men, and the office completely rebranded the program to be “Maryland Smith Women Inspire” to acknowledge that women lead more than just other women. Women Inspire showcased the new brand and the new format during the annual event in March 2020, resulting in 87.5% of survey respondents being very satisfied with the event.

Due to the pandemic, Women Inspire moved to a virtual format in 2021. The program included a Virtual Conversation with the two honorees followed by a Virtual Networking Hour with breakout rooms hosted by the honorees, a student group, and staff. The move to a virtual format helped to increase past honoree attendance from 22% to 78% and general attendance by 55%. Additionally, in partnership with a development office, they created the Smith Champions event series to engage past Women Inspire honorees and to further highlight Smith alumnae. The office also started a social media campaign to highlight inspiring Smith alumnae. From the continued rebranding and reformatting of the annual event to the creation of a themed event series and a social media campaign, Smith Alumni Relations was able to successfully recognize a key segment of their alumni community through this improved program.

Most Innovative New Initiative
Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University
Owen Forward 

Owen Forward is a new branded alumni engagement series that launched in November 2020. Originally started as a one-time, week-long event, Owen Forward has evolved to be an umbrella brand with a portfolio of virtual, in-person and on-demand engagement opportunities to inspire inquiry, close-knit collaboration, and discovery among the entire Owen and Vanderbilt community, directly supporting the mission of the Owen Graduate School of Management.

After a successful launch in November 2020, the alumni engagement team expanded the Owen Forward brand including new positioning, a new tagline, a logo evolution, and a themed content calendar tying into student life to drive engagement not only with alumni, but also with students. Owen Forward is now a brand under which all current and future alumni programming will fall, inspiring Owen business leaders to connect and grow together on a personal scale. It is a unique tool that their development officers will use to drive engagement and grow their relationships with donors, through finding speaking opportunities that complement their career experiences and connect them to Owen.

Owen Forward drives alumni engagement and is helping to increase scores on key success criteria such as the feeling of connection; pride of a degree; recommending the school to a friend, family member, colleague or mentee; and career advancement. Owen Forward is also a successful fundraising tool with 5% of those registering donating, and the team has plans to grow this to 10% in the next fiscal year.

Outstanding Partnership Award
Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado – Boulder

When COVID-19 hit the U.S. in March, the Leeds School of Business at CU Boulder quickly pivoted to provide constituents with relevant, research-backed commentary from CU Boulder’s world-renowned faculty and alumni. What started as a Business School initiative rapidly expanded to a CU-wide partnership.

Starting March 31, 2021, Leeds hosted 49 webinars over 14 months, reaching over 50,000 individuals and providing frank and timely insights for life during and after the pandemic. Topics included economic outlook updates, how to minimize indoor airborne transmission of COVID-19, the impact of the CARES Act on taxes, dating in the pandemic, and how to maintain your mental health. Presenters included faculty from Arts & Sciences, College of Media Communications & Information, Engineering, Law, Leeds, and Public Health as well as high-profile alumni, including the President and CEO of the Miami Dolphins.

The Leeds team targeted and saw attendance from every school, college, and unit across campus. Alumni were able to view the webinars via Zoom, Facebook Live, or on the Leeds YouTube channel. The team also collaborated with strategic relations and their advancement marketing team, who shared general messaging with all alumni to showcase this partnership.

Outstanding New Professional Award

Ryan Retartha, Director of Alumni Relations, Mendoza College of Business, Notre Dame University

Ryan entered the world of alumni relations by filling a position that had been vacant for two academic years and which had had a much more narrow focus. Previously, the Director of Alumni Relations position was dedicated to graduate alumni and programming for that one constituency. Since joining Mendoza, Ryan has helped resurrect the alumni board as well as his position. The position now reports directly to the Dean, and together they have crafted a completely new strategy based on maximizing alumni impact to the college and its faculty, staff and students. Ryan has inspired alumni to be involved in almost every aspect of the student journey, including the admissions pipeline, onboarding, student services, clubs and organizations, and career development. He also has engaged groups of alumni to work directly with Mendoza’s
marketing and social media staff.

Most Improved Alumni Relations Initiative
Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder
“Leeds Business Insights”

 After seeing declining attendance numbers for its regional receptions in conjunction with student treks in its Tier 1 cities from FY15 to FY17, Leeds reassessed attendance data, reviewed both qualitative and quantitative feedback, held internal discussions with staff, and decided to change everything from the intended audience to the messaging and the purpose of these events. Previous discussions with alumni indicated more content-based programs were desired. Leeds Business Insights is a series of speaking and networking opportunities for Leeds alumni to connect and engage with the Leeds network and hear from Leeds’ world-renowned faculty about their research.

In the first year there have been 752 registrations, with 447 attending.  Nine out of ten attendees would recommend a Leeds Business Insights event to a friend or colleague, and 80% of the attendees were new to the regional events.

Outstanding Partnership
Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
“B School Disrupt”

In 2016 Stanford GSB hosted an event in the Bay Area anchored around TechCrunch Disrupt. The event, B School Disrupt, featured start-up teams as they pitched their ideas in a showcase setting rather than a competition.

The following year they invited three other schools to participate with a sold-out crowd in San Francisco. The joint event included a keynote and feedback from a panel of alumni experts. 

B School Disrupt has also taken place in New York for the past two years in partnership with two other schools. These schools have worked together to invite alumni start-up teams to pitch their company to the crowd and to provide a space for their alumni communities to mix, mingle, and network.

The vibe and energy of the event is collaborative, upbeat, fun, and informative.  Not only has this been a strong partnership among different institutions, but each school works with its respective center for entrepreneurship and its local chapters to identify alumni pitch teams, speakers, emcees, and expert panelists.

Over the past two years, B School Disrupt has engaged nearly 1,000 alumni and guests, has featured 26 alumni start-up teams, 3 emcees, 4 expert panelists, and the work of more than 15 staff members across institutions.

Most Innovative New Initiative
Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota
“LGBT+ Alumni Reunion”

In October 2017 Carlson hosted its first-ever LGBT+ Alumni Reunion. It was organized in partnership by an undergraduate student group, the Alumni Relations Office, major gift officers, and the undergraduate and MBA student affairs teams with the goal of creating a welcoming and inclusive space for a traditionally underrepresented and often marginalized population.

While the university and business school have student organizations that provide programming for LGBTQIA students, the Reunion was the first program specifically aimed at engaging alumni that identify as part of the community. 

The reunion format provided a platform for students, alumni, staff and allies across programs to celebrate experiences, share stories, and foster relationships within the community, as well as continue conversations about how allies can support the advancement of issues impacting the student experience and business community. 

More than 100 alumni, students, staff, faculty members, corporate partners and other allies attended the first reunion event.  It has been heralded by attendees, the school, and the university as an overwhelming success.  As a result, the Alumni Relations Office now has a growing list of alumni that identify as LGBTQIA. 

A date has been chosen for next year’s reunion and the central University of Minnesota Alumni Association has been in touch about developing LGBTQIA alumni initiatives for the wider university community.

Outstanding New Professional
Jessie Lehosky, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University

Jessie has been an outstanding addition to the Alumni Relations team at the Tepper School.  A skilled, professional meeting manager, her impact was immediately experienced as she led two consecutive years of record alumni reunion weekends. 

Jessie also provided valuable leadership with regional alumni events and with Tepper’s outreach to its current MBA students. Her incredible work ethic and strong relationship skills combined with her attention to detail and technical abilities have allowed her to excel in her new field. 

She delivers terrific service, listens, anticipates the needs of her constituents, and also takes action and makes decisions when necessary.  Additionally, she has demonstrated that she can take on new activities to further the mission of the Alumni Relations area.

Most Improved Alumni Relations Initiative
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin

“40 Hours for 40 Acres” Campaign
This annual giving campaign started in 2014 with the goal to inspire alumni to give back to the school during 40 hours in April. In 2015, the campaign raised $17,609 from 399 alumni. In 2016 changes were made that included a branded, mobile-responsive web page with live giving updates, and heavy social media and volunteer engagement strategies. The Alumni Relations team collaborated with students to schedule the legacy student campaigns to coincide with the campaign. At the end of the 40 hours, they raised $91,913 from 589 alumni, which was a 422 percent increase in gifts and a 48 percent increase in the number of donors over the previous year.

Most Innovative New Initiative 
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin

“Texas 12 Dinners” Program
This program brings together 12 strangers for dinner where alumni have an opportunity to meet fellow graduates they would not otherwise meet. The Alumni Relations team personalized the format of the first three events to best serve different alumni affinities. They secured hosts for the dinners at faculty members’ and alumni homes. They also had a different theme for each dinner. This new initiative succeeded in that it 1) connected alumni who would not otherwise meet each other, thus expanding their personal and professional networks, 2) helped alumni to view the school as a valuable resource for fostering connections, 3) expanded the career network of students and alumni, and 4) provided an industry connection for a faculty member.

Outstanding Partnership 
Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University

“Change of Location” Project
The Alumni Relations Office, along with the Alumni Society Board, decided to take action and provide assistance to “change of location” transfer students by partnering with the Career Office. With so many diverse aspects of this demographic, it was vital to develop a portfolio of projects in order to launch this collaborative effort. In turn, these projects have created exciting engagement opportunities for alumni. Together the teams have been able to see significant progress in Change of Location initiatives in the past year alone, and they are confident that our continued collaborations will lead to results that we could not achieve independently.

Outstanding New Professional 
Sandy Gelinas, Stern School of Business, New York University

Since joining her school’s team last summer, Sandy has made an exceptional impact across so many facets. She was quick to take on a tremendously challenging but important portfolio of work, and has made such a difference in the last 12 months across all aspects of this portfolio. Sandy fits the bill when thinking of an “ideal teammate.” She is always willing to jump in and help on a project, offer her thoughts or insight from past programs, or simply brainstorm a sticky situation. Not only is she impressive in the volume of work she accomplishes, but Sandy’s quality of work is just as striking.

Most Improved Alumni Relations Initiative 
Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

Most Innovative New Initiative 
Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame

Outstanding Partnership 
George Washington University School of Business

Outstanding New Professional 
Jennifer Mihalek, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago

Outstanding Service to ABSAP 
John Sengenberger, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University

Most Improved Alumni Relations Initiative 
Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University
for their Reunion Weekend

Outstanding Partnership 
George Washington University School of Business
for their Capitol Advertising Program

Outstanding New Professional 
Adrienne Jaroch, Goizueta Business School, Emory University

Outstanding Service to ABSAP
Janice Headley, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

Most Improved Alumni Relations Initiative 
Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine
for their New Graduate Engagement Program

Most Innovative Initiative 
George Washington University School of Business
for their Volunteer Stewardship Letter Process

Outstanding Partnership 
Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University
for their Tepper Alumni Magazine App

Outstanding New Professional 
Megan Rasmussen, Foster School of Business, University of Washington

Outstanding Service to ABSAP
Leslie Mille, College of Business, Florida State University

Most Improved Alumni Relations Initiative 
Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
for their Industry Connections Event

Most Innovative Initiative 
Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
for their Future Alumni Leaders Banquet

Outstanding New Professional (Co-Recipients)
Meghan Bollens, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University
Mike Schmeckebier, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University