July 2018
Kudos to Bill Walker, a new member of The Napa Group team, who was honored by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) with the prestigious Frank L. Ashmore Award for Service to CASE and the Advancement Profession. Walker received his award “for extraordinary service in education and the field of educational advancement” (which includes alumni relations, fundraising, communications and marketing) at the annual CASE Summit for Leaders in Advancement on July 16 in New York City.
Walker was nominated by previous Ashmore Award winner Larry D. Lauer, Vice Chancellor Emeritus at Texas Christian University, who is widely recognized as a “pioneer of integrated marketing” for the higher education communications and marketing profession. Since Walker began his advancement career in the 1970s, he has followed a similar path and has been a leader in the advancement profession on the CASE board, as chair of CASE’s Commission on Communications and Marketing and as an interim CASE vice president and senior communications adviser. Now he brings his expertise to The Napa Group’s expanding strategic communications practice.
“Institutional advancement is certainly a calling,” Walker said in accepting the CASE award. “But it is also a business. We have a responsibility to our institutions and the people they serve to engage in business practices that will help ensure the future of our organizations,” from “high-touch” to “data-driven, business-savvy and high-tech.” He also praised CASE “as a model of volunteer involvement” and encouraged his colleagues to “actively seek to bring bright young people into advancement, cultivate them and the new talent they bring, and groom them for future leadership.”
See what others have to say about Bill on this YouTube video shown at the CASE Summit.
Read more about him here.
Photo: Sean Sime for CASE