Kelly Howell
Kelly Howell
Kelly Howell will join the Alumni Relations staff as associate director in the Illinois State University Foundation office in Chicago on September 1. She will coordinate regional events, geographic chapters and affinity clubs and will work on outreach in the Chicago area.
Howell, a midwest native, said the job at Illinois State appealed to her because she thinks “It is rare to find a state institution that is able to provide the wealth of resources of a larger institution to its students while maintaining the culture of a close-knit community.” She added that returning to the Midwest, being within driving distance of her family and her husband’s new management position at an upcoming downtown Chicago restaurant all helped her decide to make the move to Illinois State.
“Working at the Chicago office will provide me the unique opportunity of interacting with Illinois State alumni where they live, right in their own neighborhoods,” Howell said. “With the chaos of day-to-day lives, it’s not always possible for alumni to make it down to campus. I am eager to bring Illinois State’s excitement and energy to them.”
Howell, a 2001 marketing graduate of Butler University, worked at Pitzer College in Southern California where she managed the annual giving efforts. “My time at Pitzer provided me with numerous opportunities to gain experience in various development and alumni affairs roles, including acting as the primary contact for the Alumni Fund Chair and a number of other alumni, managing the senior class gift, coordinating the annual faculty and staff campaign and planning donor events around the country among other responsibilities,” Howell said.
Howell was most recently director of Young Alumni Programs at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She said she also wore a number of different hats at her job at SMU where she traveled the country engaging and reconnecting alumni with their alma mater as well as collaborating with “amazing alumni within the five through 25-year reunion programs” and introducing current students to the importance of remaining active as alumni after graduation. Her last year was spent managing all events, volunteer activities and fundraising efforts focusing on SMU’s most recent graduates.
