Episode 66: Jillian Nelson

Rachel: Welcome to Redbird Buzz. I'm Rachel Kobus from University Marketing and Communications. Today we're spotlighting a significant leadership milestone at Illinois State University. Effective September 1st, Jillian Nelson stepped into the newly created role of Assistant Vice President of Alumni and Donor Engagement. This appointment represents an exciting evolution of Illinois State's university advancement, bringing alumni engagement, annual giving, and donor stewardship together under a unified vision to build deeper, lifelong relationships across the entire Redbird community. Having earned a bachelor's from Bradley University and an MBA from James Madison University. Jillian has been a cornerstone of the university advancement team since 2014. Most recently, serving as senior managing director for donor engagement and campaign communications, alongside prior leadership roles at Bradley University and James Madison University. She joins us today to discuss what this integrated approach means for campus how it will shape our donor and alumni network and what lies ahead. So, Jillian, what's the word, Redbird? Tell us a little bit about yourself. 

Jillian: Well, I'm very excited to be here today. First of all, and your introduction makes me even more excited for what we're planning here at Illinois State University, but a little bit about me. As you mentioned, I am a Bradley alum. We forgive you. I appreciate the forgiveness, but I always tell people I've now been at Illinois State University much longer than I ever spent time at Bradley University as a student or an employee. So, Illinois State has really become my home. This is where I've built a lot of my career in a variety of different areas, from fundraising to working with donor events, planning our last campaign, big kickoff event, and so I've had a lot of great opportunity to really get to know Redbirds and build those valuable relationships, and that's been a lot of my focus. But a little about me. I have a husband who's actually a graduate of Illinois State, and I love to tell the story about him. He is a former Marine and a non-traditional campus red bird. So he was an adult with two kids, raising his kids while he went back to school. He worked nights at Rivian, and then came to school in the day, and he slept in his car several times for two or three hours between shift and classes, so that he could get his degree done. And we worked through that as a family to make sure that he could get that degree and be able to kind of show our kids what it means to finish a dream and a goal that you've set out to accomplish. And I'll say that that Redbird degree it paid off. He has now have a new job, and he's no longer with Rivian, though we love Rivian, and has moved into a new role using his engineering technology degree. So, proof of the wonderful value of an Illinois State education and what it can do for for families. And I have two sweet, wonderful children that are the just the pride and joy of my life. So I spend most of my time. They're amazing, and so yeah, I'm just doing mom things and doing work things and trying to do it all the best that I can. 

Rachel: And Jillian's also a Disney fanatic too, which I'm sure we'll get into at the end. But I appreciate I am a huge Disney fanatic. 

Jillian: And if you see me at any alumni events, activities, donor events, it's a great starting point. I can give you all the tips on your vacations. 

Rachel: She can for sure. She can. So I had to point that out because I appreciate that as well. So okay, so we noted that you started the AVP role very recently on September 1, but you've been with Illinois State's Division of University Advancement for over 12 years now. So looking back across your time here, as well as in your roles at Bradley and James Madison, what first sparked your passion for advancement and doing it in higher education? 

Jillian: Well, the way that I got into advancement is kind of a funny story. At one point in my life, I was the trailing spouse of a faculty member, and so I moved out to Harrisonburg, Virginia, which is where James Madison University is located, and I was looking for a job, and I was fresh, pretty fresh out of school. I had worked for the American Red Cross for a couple of years in blood donor recruitment, and I needed a job. And in that town, which was very small, there was essentially the college or the poultry industry. And I decided I was a better fit for the universities. Everybody has their feet. So I decided it was a better fit for me, and so I ended up getting an opportunity. I looked at what I'd been doing, and I found that there was development, essentially fundraising, in that part of the university. And I thought I've been raising money, basically blood, you know, asking people to have blood drives and give blood to support others. Very similar transferable skills, and I was so fortunate to get my first role at James Madison in the fundraising development area. And from then on, I just never looked back. I love the energy that college campus communities have. I love the ability to do work that is business minded and is. Focused on people and relationships, but at the same time is impactful for the good of our global, you know, success and for humanity. And so all that comes together in a way that's just the perfect climate for me to build my career and spend my time. 

Rachel: Yeah, great. And obviously, you've continued that passion and come into this role. So like you've worked with major giving, campaign planning, donor relations. So, how has having hands-on experience across so many facets of advancement shaped you now and your philosophy as a leader? 

Jillian: It's critical. I mean, I would say I sit in this position, and as I was applying and going through all the processes that you do to apply for a new job, as we all have done, you look back over the body of work that you've completed, and for me, it's just about 20 years now that I was looking back across. And in this new role, I'm going to be leading people who are planning events, who are issuing communication tactics, who are creating strategy based on segmentation, and trying to help create the most personalized, seamless, exciting experience that we can for all of our Redbirds out there who I hope are listening. We really want to do this to make a better experience for for you all, and so for me, the fact that I've served in roles that are you know run the gamut from I've planned events, I know what it's like to make sure everybody's name is right on their name tag, as we that matters for the experience that our Redbirds have. I know what it means to have to identify how we're going to, you know, invest our resources because 240,000 plus alumni is a lot, plus parents, employees, friends, students, all the constituents that we want to engage and provide these positive experiences for. I've worked with the data and having to be able to utilize that data to create scalable technology, so we can get you that good personalized experience. Because when our mail our merge doesn't work correctly and your first name doesn't populate in your email, that matters. It impacts the experience that our alumni feel from us, and so all of those things coming together help position me to understand the tiny details all the way to that big picture scope of how do we make and design experiences that are value added, and I really come at it from that. For I want to put ourselves in the perspective of all of our different alumni and constituents. What is the value add experience? Whether that means an event I go to, or a digital opportunity to engage, or the way that I receive my communication and the stories that I'm having put in front of me. To when I do make a gift, am I being invited to the philanthropy table to the right seat at the table? Right? Is it a passion? Is it an area that I would want to support? Do you know enough about me to get the right cause in front of me to give to? And then, of course, finally, are you thanking me in a way that then reflects the specific impact that I've made? And so, all of that coming together is really the holistic way that we create a premier Redbird experience. 

Rachel: And I think it's crazy. I'm glad you kind of explained that because I don't think a lot of people understand that. True, we want the full Redbird experience and how much it takes, and all the facets we're working here at Illinois State to do to make sure people have that nostalgia, have that feeling, have that experience, and how much we truly do care about our alums, our donors, we love every single bit about them. So thank you for giving that. 

Jillian: Absolutely, yeah. It's all about relationships between them and the institution, between our employees and them. Yeah, and then of course helping them connect, you know, together, and not even just with people they went to university with, but maybe they're in the same region now together, and they have being Redbirds in common, and they can help build community in a time where it's increasingly difficult to do that. 

Rachel: You're right. Yeah, yeah. And so this kind of leads me into, and you talked a little bit about this, but Illinois State intentionally brought alumni engagement, annual giving, donor relations together under a unified umbrella. This leadership that you'll be you'll be leading this team, so why is breaking down these kind of what a lot of universities do of the traditional silos between alumni and donors so critical to us right now? 

Jillian: Well, I'm going to start with an example that I think our listeners might particularly care about. Just in my first two weeks in the position, I have been looking at all of the communication that we're sending out at once, the various three different teams that are coming together as one have always sent really important and and excellent communication, but we've done that independently within those silos. And so, for example, I'm looking at the number of things that are going out about homecoming and you know different events we have coming up, donor events that are happening our first fall appeal, and the number that people are getting without really a concerted communication calendar. So I I think even just starting with those types of things, when are we communicating? How are we communicating? How often and to what groups of people? Because we don't want to overcrowd your inboxes or your text. Messaging platforms. We want to get the right blend of information and make sure that you're being invited as often as you're being asked. That you're thanked for every time you're making a gift in an appropriate way, and that that balance of the type of communications exists. So that would be one example that I think people will care about, right? Yeah, improving the communication experience for folks, and then additionally, I would say that to me, it's about the fact that we want to invite people into deeper relationship with Illinois State at every point of the spectrum. So some people join us for the first time because they attend an event. Some people will never attend an event, but they make a gift to something that we've done, and and and so then they get stewarded, and so in each of our components that we're building and designing for our alumni, how do we follow that initial interaction that an alum decides? You know, they raise their hand and participate in some way. We need to follow that with an invitation to invest more deeply in the university, and I don't necessarily mean money. Although money is we love when people support the university. I do mean that. Is there an opportunity to invite them into speak at classes or to create those opportunities for them to volunteer to visit campus to learn about the you know boards that they can various boards or the regions in their areas that they can serve on? And we recognize that those happen for people at different points in their life cycle, right? Yeah. You know, when I'm a young alum, I'm looking for different things-a bird of the last decade, as we call them here. I'm looking for different things than I am someone my age, which spoiler alert is not a bird of the last decade. I'm looking for different things in my life, right? And and vice versa. As someone maybe has students going off to college, they've reached empty nester. They might be looking for that second act. You know, I want to do something in my career differently. The university could play a part in that. I want to engage with senior professionals or travel opportunities through our travel program. And so, how are we ensuring that as a collective group, we're segmenting and getting to know our alumni? We're inviting them once they've raised their hand and they've participated to something we're offering, we invite them deeper in to connection with us in the way that fits them and their life cycle stage that they're at in that moment in time. 

Rachel: And I think it's really important. I'm glad you hit on that too. That it's not like you said, we love the support, but there's a variety of ways that you can support. So it is truly that time, talent, and treasure, and how much our students care about that impact too. Between those times, talent and treasure, whether it's you giving a handshake to a student after networking with them versus giving them a scholarship, it's all important to our student base too. So I'm glad you highlighted that it at the point in your life doesn't matter. There's always something in some way to support Illinois State. 

Jillian: Absolutely, and I will tell you, I've had some because I've been a frontline fundraiser out on the road, interact with donors in my past lives as well. I've really had some amazing opportunities to see the impact of those types of non-philanthropic, not necessarily giving, but those interactions that people have had with the institution. I had a couple that I worked with who became mentors to students, and they've talked. I mean, when I would meet with them as their you know development officer. They would talk all about the interactions that they had with these students over the years. They kept in touch with them as they graduate. They went to some of their weddings afterwards. That's amazing because of these mentorship experience, and then actually was able to reach out to some of the graduates as they graduated and get them back to campus and talk to them about their experiences. And they were so complimentary of what that had meant and how that had helped them, you know, getting started in their career, the advice that they were given, and so there's certainly these really incredible opportunities to connect our community, and I think one of our jobs as we move forward is to create the systems and the processes that make that easy for our average Redbird who maybe is listening today and saying, "Hey, I'd love to get involved, but I don't know how. I don't know what that first step is. We want to make that really easy and serve it up to people as an option that they can consider throughout their lifetime to be involved with the university in the way that works for them at that moment in time. 

Rachel: Yeah, and you kind of hit on my next question because you know a lot of graduates don't see that clear line between staying connected to their alma mater and how to give back. So, how would this integrated approach create that seamless, meaningful journey? Again, you touched on this a bit, but maybe a little more from that recent graduate experience all the way to our lifelong supporters. 

Jillian: Yeah, I think one of the things is that it's it's our duty to really advertise and share with our alumni what those opportunities are, because again, I think so many times, you know, you think about your own life, or you know, listeners, you think about your lives, and you're busy. You know, you've got your job, you've got your family, you've got friends, you've got you know other clubs and organizations that you're involved in and supporting, and so we really have to make those clear asks and invitations that are not just philanthropic. They will include philanthropic, but to be able to say, you know, hey birds of the last decade, we've got these three or four opportunities for you to get involved on campus or in your own specific area, and so I think painting those very clear pictures and inviting. People more to join us is really our responsibility to do as as a team, and as an alum, I would say it's important for you to understand that the very fact that you would participate in supporting Illinois State University is like casting your vote of confidence for your institution. So I always say it's it's you know whether you could give $5 or you can say yes, I will come back and volunteer at Redbird Impact Month volunteer events, or you are participating in the life of the university, which means that we're able to report and celebrate that. I mean, it matters sometimes on things like you know institutions that are trying to get foundation money or grant money, oftentimes you have to report on the participation of your alum in the life of your institution, and so the ability that that we can demonstrate that our alumni find value and they connect back and they invest in one another helps strengthen the overall brand of the university, the overall value of your degree and your education, and it strengthens all of us. Right? It's one of those things. The whole community wins. And so I always encourage people to get involved in the way that you can. And sometimes in your life that might look like reading the magazine, and that might be all you have time for in your life at that point, and that's okay. But continuing to stay in touch and knowing that there might be seasons down the road where you can do more, and you are invited to the table, that door remains open with your institution throughout your lifetime. 

Rachel: Great, and I just love your excitement, Jillian, in that you're going to fit in so well. I feel like with the alumni donor, you know, this loyal group, this loyal base that we have. So, what excites you? Knowing that you know, how do you plan to leverage data, use personalized communication, get personalized engagement? What excites you to now get in with our Redbird, you know, base and figure all that out? 

Jillian: Well, I'm very lucky because I'm taking on this role at a time where we've come through a lot of technology changes, and as an institution, there's a lot more available to us to help identify what types of interests people might have, what they're sharing out in the world in social, like everything we share out in the world, we can look at. And so sometimes someone might have graduated from the arts, but they've spent their whole career pursuing entrepreneurship, and maybe now I can see that this person actually should be invited to our entrepreneurial content and not really our arts content, and so we're entering a place and a space at Illinois State University where we can harness that in ways we never have before. Another example is, and this is a little technical for for friends, but we have a new product called Marketing Cloud, which is a great opportunity. It kind of integrates with our CRM that we have at the institution, which is a way that we help keep track of all of the information about our alumni. 

Rachel: So, how can we get in contact with you, and what were you involved in when you're on campus, so we can get you the right opportunities and interests? 

Jillian: Well, this new system can actually integrate with our CRM, which we've never had the ability to do before, and so there's opportunities to build journeys, so where I can say something that you do that would feed into that, you attend an event, for example, that automatically feeds into our system, and we can have a whole journey built. So if you run the 5k, what happens then to invite you into deeper connection with Illinois State University? Used to be that we would have to manually create all of that information and send it. We can over time, and this will take time. I should iterate that to build out journeys that will basically automatically create that interaction and create that sort of journey experience that we would want our constituents to have. So we have technology now that's going to help us to scale things in a way that we've never been able to do before. And my job is to assemble the team and motivate the team and build the priorities for the team, so that we can move, you know, methodically forward in that process of building those types of journeys, testing them, assessing them. I'm a very big metric driven. I believe in data driven decisions. It's kind of a hallmark of my career looking back, and so we will use that. We want to count not just our philanthropy, which we do, but also our engagement. And that's one of the projects we're working on. Is we have a group, the case, which a lot of folks won't know, but it's essentially the institution and organization that sets all the benchmarking for advancement in higher education, and so they've set some standards now for how we count engagement. And one of them, one of the modes, is philanthropy. But there are three others: volunteerism, communication. So are people interacting with the communications that we send them, and then experiences. So that would be your events, your digital virtual experiences. And we've never really counted who's doing what, how many people are engaging with us in a given year, and so our opportunity now to move towards a project that will create counting mechanisms for engagement opens up a ton of possibility. Because again, I can look and say, well, who engaged? With communication, they're interacting with our communication, but we want to pull them deeper in through an experience. How do we move them towards an experience or towards a volunteer opportunity to be able to visualize and track and know who those people are opens up possibilities that we've just never had before. So I'm thrilled to be able to be able to lead this organization at this moment in time, where we have these things available to us.

Rachel: Yeah, and you gave everyone a little sneak peek into the sneak operations operations of what we do. 

 

Jillian: We have a whole system that tells us how we can contact you, and even how you prefer to be contacted. Which I should tell people: Yes, you can always tell the university. I prefer to be emailed or texted or called. All of those types of things. We want to. We want to talk to you the way that you want to be spoken with. Yeah, yeah. 

Rachel: So my last question before we get to know a little bit more about you is now look at future Jillian down the road. That you know that typical question, but I want to know. So looking ahead, that three to five years, what is success looking like for you in this newly newly merged unit, and what's the legacy you're hoping to build in this new role? 

Jillian: Oh my! Well, future Jillian probably has more gray hair. Okay, I would imagine even more. It's it's beginning, but I think there will be more. I think for me, when I think about three to five years from now, I would say I hope that we're in a place where the team has been established and really has moved into a place where we are planning and making decisions from the bottom up together, the ground up together. Versus, I think early integration, what kind of can tend to happen is everybody has their existing plans, and you look for some opportunities to maybe do something together, or everyone attend together. When we know we will have arrived, is where we're creating new marquee red bird traditions and experiences, or create taking old ones that are very important. Homecoming would be example. It's a wonderful tradition. We don't want to get rid of homecoming, but what does an integrated homecoming look like? What are the experiences there that are donor specific? What are the opportunities to create new engagement moments for our alumni that maybe look different, that are additive to the great traditions that we already have? So, to me, the legacy that I hope to bring is one where we formed a team that continues to focus on relationships. I think that's what we do well. We do it really well as an institution and as a group. And moving that essentially to where we can bring more people to the table because you mentioned earlier we have a great core group of alum that love Illinois State University. I've met many. I'm excited to meet more of you as I'm out at more events in the coming months and years. What I would like to do is get more people to sort of be involved in this great secret sauce we have over here at Illinois State University, and so part of that is having our existing core group of alumni and supporters and philanthropists inviting others, helping to be that word of mouth to invite others into some of these new things as we create them, and our job is to get creative and bring you offerings that will get you excited and make you want to give us some time on your weekend or your Thursday evening or to log on virtually to join us, and so that's what I'm going to be focusing on creating the opportunities that will get our alumni and constituents excited and invested in the life of the university, 

Rachel: I love it. Yeah, love it. So now I said, let's get to know you a little bit more with our lightning round before we say goodbye to you. So, first question: favorite spot on campus? 

Jillian: Oh, you know what? I'm gonna say, I don't even know the right name for it, but the patio outside of Milner does it have a specific name? 

Rachel: Yeah, I think it's the plaza. 

Jillian: The plaza, I like the Milner Plaza. I've always liked it there, and one of the reasons I have two. Can I do another one? One of the reasons for the Milner Plaza area is that I've actually spent some time with my kids out there. We often will come out and walk the quad or play football out there, and we often like to sit up there on the little tables and have a snack and do it. So it's just kind of a family spot for me. The other is Ewing Cultural Center. I love Ewing Cultural Center. I love history and all of those things, and it's one of the first places that when I was a new employee at Illinois State, the former Tony Tucker, who worked out there, many of you probably listening know Tony, and she helped lead the Ewing Manor. She invited me out and gave me a tour, and it was a place where I really got to understand the history of that home, but then also how it helped create the Illinois State University Foundation that I've been a part. It was the first gift and why we created a foundation, and I've just always loved that tie. It's a great place to host alum, to have donor events and experiences. It's just a really beautiful jewel for the community and for the institution. So I love Ewing culture. I'm glad you brought that up because again, it's not a hidden gem per se, but since so far off campus, I think we forget to say how amazing and that it's part of Illinois State. I've been taking my team there for retreats and planning sessions almost. Every year since I started, because it's I think it's a great resource for us as well. 

Rachel: Favorite Illinois state tradition. Don't be biased. 

Jillian: Oh, I'm gonna be. She said, "Don't be biased on my favorite tradition.” This is a no-brainer for me. My favorite tradition is Birds Give Back, and I have to say, totally selfishly, it is because probably the greatest honor of my career has been that we started Birds Give Back in 2019, and I remember being the person that decided we're going to go away from a Giving Tuesday experience and create our own Giving Day. We're going to come up with the branding. I was very nervous to change what had you know by all accounts at the time had been working. We would have about you know 1,300 or so people make a gift on giving on Giving Tuesday, and so to pull that out in my first like three months that I started a job, I was like, "We're not doing that. We're going to do this instead. Every part of me was terrified. I knew I felt like it was the right thing to do. My research, my data, all told me it was the right thing to do. But you never take a big leap like that without being a little bit terrified. Oh yeah, yes, yeah, and it has become just an increasingly impactful part of our philanthropy at Illinois State, and so now we see usually around 43 to four 500 gifts come in on a giving day. It's a campus wide collaborative effort. And like I said, so just a couple of years ago, I was told by one of my employees they came in and said, "You're never going to believe it. They made birds give back an official Illinois State University tradition. It's on the website, and I was like, I can't believe we created something that made the tradition. And I feel so, I'm so proud of it, just because you don't get a chance in your career to do things like that, to build things like that, very often. And so I would say that was is one of my favorites, but I'm about to enjoy homecoming, which I'm really excited for coming up.

Rachel: And we're excited to have you. Don't forget to join us. 

Jillian: October 20 or October 19. 

Rachel: There you go. Starts October 19. So when I'm not working…

Jillian: When I'm not working, I am in my garden, or processing food from my garden. Which, if you're out there and you garden, you're going to understand what I feel, which is you get really excited every spring. You plant this, and you're, you know, it's. I love to tend my garden. It's stress relieving for me. Good exercise, and we live in the country, so I have a pretty good space for gardening, but then the produce comes in, and inevitably this is happening, like tomatoes, particularly August and September, which is the busy year getting your kids back to school. Illinois State, everything is happening at once, and I have 400 million tomatoes on my counter, and the fruit flies join, and so I regret it every single fall. But that's what I do. I'm making salsa and spaghetti sauce, and that's what I do with my spare time right now. 

Rachel: Yes, well, that sounds productive and delicious. 

Jillian: If you see me ask me for a jar of salsa, I can hand you one. 

Rachel: I would like a jar of salsa, please. 

Jillian: Coming to your office tomorrow. 

Rachel: All right. Favorite place to travel? 

Jillian: Oh, this is impossible. I'm a huge traveler. And one of the things I was most excited about when I heard about this getting this position in many things, but we have a travel program here, which I think our alums should really take advantage of. There's some incredible trips and opportunities to, you know, see the world and see them with friends, and to be able to make some connections along the way, and know that you've got that community there while you're out exploring. So for me, favorite place to travel one, I always I'm a Disney person, so go to Disney a lot. But we've established that. But the my favorite thing I've ever done is my family made a decision to take a big trip a couple of years ago to Europe, and we took our kids, which was some people thought I was crazy to take my children to Europe, but my son was five, my youngest. But we flew and we took a three week trip, and we spent time in Germany and Paris and all around, mostly around the country of Germany, primarily because I grew up hosting foreign exchange students when I was a high schooler, and one of we had four throughout my time as a as a young person. And my senior year, we had a young woman from Germany who lived with us for a year. We were seniors together, and we became best of friends. And she has a son that's just about my son's age, and so we had an opportunity to bring our families together to travel through her country, to get a chance for my kids to meet her kids, and it was just life changing. You get to see all the cool things in history, but you also are getting to kind of introduce a part of your heart that you had with your family to your to your new family. And so we're actually planning a trip to meet up with them again, potentially in Ireland. So yes, I'm a big traveler and always looking for tips. So if you see me at an event and you have a favorite place you've been, please let me know and I'll add it to my bucket list. The list is going to be real long. It will be real long. 

Rachel: Yes, you'll get through it. Maybe, but we'll try. It'll be fun trying. You'll get through. Yes, what an experience. All right. My last question: One piece of advice you'd offer to a recent grad looking to stay involved with Illinois State? 

Jillian: One thing that I would say to start is to look at the existing resources around you. So take a visit to our website. I've been doing this a lot on my own because I'm learning about some of the additional offerings that we have, and you know we have so many regional networks that are in you know many of our populated areas across the country. Take a look at there; it can be a great place if you're moving somewhere to get involved. I know Detroit has an event coming up, for example, in just a couple of weeks. Getting involved and just taking that effort to get out there, meet some people face to face is a great place to start. But there's also a lot of opportunities to volunteer your time. We have several different boards. We have a birds of the last decade group in Central Illinois and also in Chicago that are very active and get and building and growing. Those are great opportunities to get involved. So start with the website. We also have contact information on there. Tons of contact information. So you can shoot an email. Yeah. You can give us a call. We'll set up some time to get on a phone call with you, to chat with you, even meet you virtually, and have a chance to learn about you and your story and what we could pair you with or connect you with that might be the best fit for you and what you're looking for, so we're happy to also help curate right an experience for you. But the website is a really good place to start seeing what's out there and what's available. I also hope that in the coming you know six months, eight months, that we will have new things to be adding and being able to market what we offer in a new way, so that you'll see it easily. Like I said, that we want to serve that up to you in a really seamless ways, that you can see. Oh, this is happening right here in my community. This is one I can get involved in. Or you know, some of us don't aren't event people. My husband is an alum and he's an introvert, and he going to an event would make him anxious. But there are other opportunities. You know, get involved with the book club that we have, or you know, digital offerings when we do webinars. So making sure that you look at that, there are so many opportunities out there you can pick and really curate the experience that you're looking for. So feel free to reach out. We're always happy to talk to you individually as well and guide you along the way and help you get started. 

Rachel: Yeah, and I think that's a perfect place to say thank you, Jillian, for talking to us and sharing your passion and getting to you know share a little bit more about yourself, and I'm looking very forward to hopefully future conversations and what's to come. 

Jillian: Absolutely, I hope I see all of the you Redbirds listening out at different alumni events and at homecoming coming up. Please feel free to let me know you listened, and we can chat Disney and travel and all things Redbirds. 

Rachel: And that was Illinois State's inaugural Assistant Vice President of Alumni and Donor Engagement, Jillian Nelson. Thanks for listening to Redbird Buzz. Tune in next time for more stories from beyond the Quad.