ALUMNI PROFILE
Leading Marquette Alumni
It started with an ad in a community newspaper. The College of Business Administration was looking for mentors, and real estate consultant Douglas Kelley, Bus Ad ’79, stepped forward.
By Nicole sweeney etter
 He spent the next decade getting more involved with his alma mater and, last July, was elected Alumni Association president, the first alum of color to hold the post. “I always want to make sure that the university that I graduated from is better for the next generation,” says Kelley. He has another goal: “This is also my opportunity to try to re-engage alumni of color.”
In 1996, Kelley and a handful of others launched a grass-roots Ethnic Alumni Association. “The key was getting them reconnected,” he says, “to look at doing some mentoring, to assist us in raising scholarships and just networking with the overall university.”
The group became an official alumni chapter in 2001, raising $25,000 in 12 months to endow the Ralph Metcalfe Scholarship. About 100 attended the EAA’s first reunion in 2004, and the group’s next reunion is slated for Alumni Reunion Weekend in July 2007.
As president, Kelley is working with the association’s national board to develop a strategic plan. Also at the top of his to-do list: strengthening leadership in the association’s chapters and clubs and getting even more alumni involved. That’s not difficult to do. “When Marquette puts out the call,” he says, “we come back.”
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