What an outstanding spring it has been for NACADA and all of our members!  Since the association’s beginnings, our annual spring Region Conferences have been outstanding opportunities for veteran members and new members to come together to learn from each other and to network with their colleagues in their regions. This year’s Region Conferences have continued this superb tradition but at record attendance!  Six of the 10 Region Conferences this year had over 400 participants with another two having over 350 participants!  Nearly 1,000 more academic advising professionals were touched by NACADA this spring than we have attend our Annual Conferences!  What a great tribute to the outstanding work that NACADA is doing and the connection that institutions across the globe are recognizing between academic advising and student success!

However, these Region Conferences and all they accomplish for the field and profession of academic advising and for the association would not happen without the herculean efforts and work of the Region Chairs, Region Conference Chairs, and hundreds of volunteers across the Regions.  Just as our participation numbers have risen, the number of volunteers for each of our Region Conferences continues to grow.  Just as we tell our students the more involved they are the more connected they are to the institution, our members continue to strengthen their connections to NACADA through volunteering at their Region Conferences in a multitude of ways.  I want to publicly acknowledge and thank all of the volunteers for the outstanding work they did in making this spring’s conferences so successful. I also want to thank Diane Matteson in the NACADA Executive Office for all she does to make the conferences so successful – Diane and all the EO staff are truly the unsung heroes for all they do for our association and for all members! Kudos to everyone involved in the 2012 Region Conferences!

One of the things that I feel has contributed to NACADA’s continued growth and influence is that we are providing our members with multiple ways to connect with the association throughout the entire year.  Attending an annual, regional, or state conference is just one way to connect and learn from NACADA colleagues and feel connected.  Through our Summer Institutes, Administrators’ Institute, Assessment Institute, Annual Seminar, Web Events, and publications, each member has the opportunity to benefit from their membership in multiple ways during the year.  Add to this the conversations being facilitated on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, and it is very clear that NACADA touches our members in ways that support their work on behalf of their students, enhance the programs being developed and implemented on campuses, and expand the influence of academic advising across higher education.

NACADA also continues to make powerful connections globally on behalf of the field of academic advising. In the past year, NACADA leaders and members have visited campuses in the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, the UAE, and Qatar. Through these visits, NACADA has continued to strengthen its role as the Global Community for Academic Advising.  In June 2013, we will be co-hosting an International Conference on Academic Advising and Personal Tutoring with the University of Maastricht in Maastricht, Netherlands, and preliminary discussions have begun to co-host a conference in the Middle East with Qatar University. Through our outreach to our global colleagues, our members are able to learn from professionals across the globe and build global networks to support the work we each do on our individual campuses.  What an exciting time this is for the association as well as for our entire membership of over 10,800 members!

It was such a pleasure to see so many of you at the Region Conferences this spring, and I look forward to seeing many more of you at our Summer Institutes in Austin and Louisville this summer and at our Annual Conference in Nashville in October!  Please don’t hesitate to contact me any time if you have any questions, issues, or concerns.

Charlie Nutt, Executive Director
NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising
(785) 532-5717
cnutt@ksu.edu

Cite this article using APA style as: Nutt, C. (2012, June). From the executive director: NACADA continues to grow and impact higher education globally. Academic Advising Today, 35(2). Retrieved from [insert url here]