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New developments in development MC’s development staff moved to a
new location north of the main campus one year ago in April, and now there are several new faces in the new facility. Nicole Olin ’11 was hired in January to serve as assistant director of alumni programs. Olin will focus on event planning, especially Homecoming weekend festivities. She will also coordinate alumni gatherings. In February, Marnie Dugan ’95 and Paige Halpin ’09 began new positions. Dugan is the assistant director of external relations, while Halpin is associate director of development in the Chicago area “We are excited about the new external relations position,” said associate dean of students Michelle Merritt ’89 of Dugan’s role. “Marnie will focus on programming that reaches, serves and engages students and alumni, such as our successful Scots Connection career and leadership conferences.” Halpin will manage relationships with approximately 125 prospective donors and will focus primarily on identifying, cultivating and stewarding gifts between $1,000 and $5,000, with a secondary emphasis on gifts of up to $10,000. She reports to MC’s director of principal gifts, Steve Bloomer ’83. “Paige distinguished herself as an engaged student at Monmouth,” said Bloomer. “Now she will apply her talents toward setting positive conditions for enhanced alumni and college involvement in the Chicagoland area and toward increasing alumni membership in the Annual Fund and 1853 Society.” In March, Cindy Robinson was hired as alumni relations coordinator. She is responsible for helping to plan and staff major alumni events such as Golden Scots. Robin Borgione came aboard a month later, joining the staff as assistant director of development research and donor relations. She performs the critical role of overseeing MC’s prospect research and management system. Borgione will develop and implement a plan for strategically identifying and researching prospects who have the capacity to provide significant philanthropic support to the college. In other development office news, Hannah Maher was promoted to associate director of annual gifts.
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Connell, Cordery receive prestigious Hatch Awards The recipients of two of the three 2012 Hatch Academic Excellence Awards were named last spring. Professor Mike Connell , chair of the department of political economy and commerce, received the Hatch Award for Distinguished Service at the May faculty meeting. History professor Stacy Cordery received the Hatch Award for Distinguished Scholarship and Research during Scholars Day activities in April. In a letter to Cordery, the Hatch Award Committee commended her “published work, reviews, newspaper articles and other materials. … We were immensely impressed with the scope, quality, quantity and also broad reach of your scholarship.” “I am thrilled for Stacy with the publication of her book on (Girl Scouts founder) Juliette Gordon Low and the fantastic national reception it has received,” said David Timmerman, dean of the faculty. The Hatch Award for Distinguished Service is awarded to “individuals and groups that do especially noteworthy work for the institution.” In addition to chairing one of the college’s largest departments with “competence and grace,” Connell has a lengthy docket of advisees and supervises a half dozen internships every year in addition to teaching some of the largest classes on campus. Widely respected for his wise counsel, Connell has frequently been tapped to serve on search committees and strategic planning intiatives during his 19 years on campus. He was part of the original Curriculum Review Task Force and has chaired Faculty Senate. “Mike Connell is a tireless worker with a deep commitment to Monmouth,” said Timmerman. “I particularly enjoyed working with him last summer with a faculty committee that researched and constructed a proposal for our new 4-4 curriculum. He is a clear thinker who is able to express his thoughts clearly, concisely and cogently.”
McMillan honored by University of Illinois Ken McMillan , Pattee Professor in Political Economy and Commerce, was presented with an Award of Merit by the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) Alumni Association during the 41st ACES and Paul A. Funk Recognition Award Banquet. The award is given annually to College of ACES graduates who have made significant contributions to their chosen profession and to the human sciences and food and natural resources industries. McMillan, who was the chief speechwriter for the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, was the founding president and has been a board member of the Illinois Agricultural Leadership Foundation since 1987.
Draxler named an NEH Fellow Assistant professor Bridget Draxler was named an NEH Fellow and was one of 16 academics who attended a National Endowment for the Humanities summer seminar at the University of Missouri on Jane Austen and her contemporaries. “Basically, the plan is to create a digital timeline on historical literature, using Austen’s Northanger Abbey as a sample, but ultimately creating a curriculum guide for faculty to use as a template for students to do similar projects,” said Draxler, who directs Monmouth’s Communication Across the Curriculum program. “My goal is to help faculty use digital tools to help students organize and present archival research on historical literature.”
monmouth | winter 2013