Announcing the new President-Elect, Megan Coker!
The McDermott Alumni Board Association recently held its President-Elect vote, and we are pleased to announce the Board’s new President-Elect, Megan Coker! Below are her plans for her term as President as well as some of the history of her experiences and accomplishments while on the Board.
Time on Board: 2 years
Q: What have you done while on the Board? What would you consider your most significant accomplishment?
A: While on the Board, I have had the privilege of serving as Membership Committee Chair. That role has enabled me to learn a great deal about the organization as a whole and our growing body of alumni. It has also allowed me to take a holistic view of how our structure can work to help us achieve our goals. My biggest challenge in that role has been to ensure that a diverse group of our alumni serve on the Board and on the Executive Committee and that we have no gaps in strong leadership despite the impact of term limits. This has led to one of my biggest accomplishments. I worked from the first day to ensure that we would fill all of our committee positions and that those positions would remain filled in 2017 when a large portion of the Board left due to term limits. I reached out and had in-depth conversations with many alumni about serving on the Board and on the Executive Committee. At the same time, I had conversations with outgoing committee chairs about ensuring they involved and trained newer Board members so that we would have viable leadership in all positions from 2017 onward. I learned a great deal during this process and have been impressed and inspired by how many alumni are willing to give their time and serve, even when their careers and personal lives keep them extremely busy.
Although it should operate seamlessly and out of view, I count it as an accomplishment that I was able to plan and execute so many elections and ballot measures as Membership Committee Chair. Another of my biggest accomplishments was working behind the scenes to help ensure the success of various events throughout my tenure. The best example is our first Signature Event at the Dallas Museum of Art. I helped to plan, coordinate, and execute important tasks for the event and ensured that we had a good turnout for the luncheon. It was a team effort, but I was proud to contribute to the success of an event that I hope will become a beloved tradition.
Q: What are your plans for the Association going forward? What would you like to improve upon or achieve?
A: The Association, the Program, and the University are in a critical period of transition. The Association faces growing membership and the temporary loss of many of our initial leaders. The University has gained a new leader, and retirements in future years will mean that the Program and the Association face a new landscape at the University. As the University grows and these leadership changes occur, it will be critically important for our organization to protect the Program and become sufficiently involved and influential to ensure its future success. My plans for the Association revolve around that goal. I plan to approach these challenges on a few fronts, including continuing to strengthen our organizational structure and operations, fundraising for our stability and influence, and becoming increasingly involved in the University community.
First, we have a strong but fledgling organization. Someone aptly referred to it once as being in the “startup” phase. We have made significant strides since our formation. We have increased our involvement in Finalists Weekend through alumni-only interviews and a greater presence on the selection committee. Soon, we will have completed our $100,000 donation to the University. We have installed and funded a grants program that allows students to pursue worthy public service projects on campus and in the local community. And we have hosted major and minor events to keep our alumni connected to each other and the Program. That’s just to name a few of the Association’s initiatives. As our membership grows and University leadership increasingly involves people who do not know us all personally and who know less about the Program, we need to evolve from a startup to a more established and influential organization. I want to build on our success and ensure we have a seat at the decisional table for the Program and the University.
Through my own experience and from talking to our current President and Board members, I think we can move toward the more established phase in many ways. To discuss just a few here, I envision doing more outreach to and representation of the different classes throughout the year, making more connections with current scholars through events, panels, and mentoring activities, ensuring more centralized record keeping of our key documents, hosting more events to bring alumni together in Dallas and in areas of high saturation throughout the country, increased involvement in committees and events for all of our Board members, and more regular updates on the Association’s accomplishments and activities so that we are all apprised of the benefits the Association provides.
Second, I want to use fundraising to build the Association’s reserves so that we can increase our influence within the University and continue to fund worthy service and development initiatives. We’ve had great success and leadership in the area of fundraising so far. With a growing alumni base and new strategies like a more extended fundraising push, I anticipate that our capacity to fundraise will grow in the next couple of years. Showing our strength and commitment through a $100,000 gift to the University was important. Giving back through a grants program is an apt expression of the service ethos we hold dear. In the next few years, I would like to work on a new goal: raising sufficient funds to establish an endowment for the Association. With our own endowment, we could ensure continued support for the grants program, sufficient annual funding for alumni events and outreach, and we could work toward using our financial strengths to ensure the continued success of the Program, knowing the Association is financially stable.
Third, I want to increase our involvement with the University, including the students in the Program and the new leadership. Our current and past leadership has done an excellent job of cultivating relationships with key leaders of the University and the Program. Current leadership has even endeared itself to the scholars such that they gave us a seat at their McDermott Council. This is a trend I want to continue. I would host events with our alumni and University leadership as frequently as possible. I would continue having alumni attend events on UTD’s campus to stay connected with the current scholars and the Program. I will work hard to develop relationships between the Association and the President, Provost, and other faculty so that we remain an influential voice during and after this period of transition. I would like to add a few events to our yearly schedule to increase alumni networking among alumni and with the scholars, both in Dallas and in other cities where many of our alumni live.
Our past presidents, Andres Correa and Alex Garcia Topete, have built a strong organization and leave large shoes to fill. I hope to build on that success in a critical period of transition. I want to bring us closer to being a sophisticated, established, and influential voice within the University and the Program. I want to enable the Association to protect the Program we hold dear and give back to the Program and University that taught us all so much.
