WSU Alumni Association adds to staff
"This is exciting for our whole alumni affairs team,†says WSUAA President and CEO Courtney M. Marshall. “We are now fully staffed and ready to move on a score of projects and events, both traditional ones and a number of new initiatives, too."
Zeller, assistant director of alumni events, and Blanton, who is assistant director of student and young alumni relations, both work in the WSUAA's programs and events department, which is headed by Lynn Loveland, the director of alumni programs.
"The opportunity to work with the Wichita State Alumni Association and help further the mission of the university is something that means a lot to me,†says Zeller, who holds degrees in sport management and in recreation and sport management.
"I'm excited to be back on campus and proud to be working for this great alumni organization," says Blanton, a 2013 integrated marketing communications graduate of Wichita State.
Zeller, who most recently was director of game operations for the Wichita Thunder professional hockey organization, is a graduate of Washington State University and of Florida International University. His work history in sport management includes being a game operations assistant for FIU athletics in Miami, as well as a compliance intern at Rice University athletics in Houston and at Washington State in Pullman.
Blanton's most recent position was community outreach coordinator and communications specialist at the Credit Union of America in Wichita. Before that, he served as brand manager, account services at Colab Digital LLC, also in Wichita. At Wichita State, Blanton was a recipient of the Wallis Endowed Scholarship and active in many student organizations, including the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at WSU.
Loveland, who had been serving as assistant director of chapters and Wichita programs for the University of Kansas Alumni Association, was hired in June 2015, the first new hire of Marshall's tenure as the 11th administrative leader of the 103-year-old alumni association. Marshall took up her duties as the top administrator in January 2015.
Zeller, Blanton and Loveland join Marshall and the other members of the WSUAA in moving forward on an organizational and programmatic re-strengthening of the alumni organization.
In August 2015, Scott Heinrichs, a CPA and business administration graduate of Wichita State, accepted the WSUAA position of director of administration and finance, a position that had not been staffed full-time for several years. Heinrichs had been serving as internal auditor at Wichita State since 2014. Earlier, he was auditor for the Arizona Department of Education in Phoenix.
Rounding out the WSUAA staff are Donna Lamb, executive assistant; Nita Reed, records supervisor; Stacy Salters, assistant director of alumni information; Jessica Seibel, communications associate; Stacy Shanahan, membership coordinator; Erin Stieben, director of marketing and membership; and Connie White, director of communications.
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Contact: Connie White, 316-978-3835, 316-209-6095 (cell) or connie.white@wichita.edu.