Back in early July, I officially logged my last day as interim CEO of the Penn State Alumni Association. The nearly 18 months I spent in the role were a bit of a blur, full of meetings—so, so many meetings—emails, events, and travel. It’s all made for a popular topic among family, friends, and colleagues, and in sitting down to write this, it occurred to me how often I’ve heard three things in particular.

Are you glad to be done? I am! I remain genuinely honored to have been trusted with the job, and the chance to lead a team of talented, committed professionals working every day to strengthen the connection our alumni have to their alma mater, and to each other. I count myself particularly lucky to have worked so much more closely with so many of my colleagues across the organization, in particular Amy Dugan ’97 Sci, whose diligence, work ethic, and thoughtfulness were essential in helping to keep my head (mostly) above water.

I’m also very happy to have handed over the job to our new CEO, Reggie Bustinza, who started on July 6. You can read more about Reggie’s journey to Happy Valley and his ambitions for the alumni association on p. 66.

I bet you learned a lot. Man, I really did—mostly about how hard my colleagues work. The nature of alumni relations work means a lot of late nights and weekends, and it often means traveling across the state and around the country—I think I visited seven states and left Pennsylvania a dozen times while in the role. But as I came to appreciate on an entirely new level, the long hours are shared in different ways by nearly everyone on our team.

What are you doing with all your free time? A lot more of, well, this. While I stayed as involved as I could with the magazine, I could never have done this job justice over those 18 months. I owe a huge thanks to everyone on the Penn Stater team for their patience, and for the many ways they stepped up while I was (mostly) absent. I’m thrilled to be back where I belong, and I'm excited about the ways we can make your alumni magazine better than ever.

Ryan Jones ’95 Com  |  Editor
ryanjones@psu.edu  |  @RJPennStater

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