Speakers
Dr Maria Gallo
Dr Maria Gallo has over 20 years as a scholar, and higher education professional in strategic planning, alumni relations and development. Maria is the former Director of Lifelong Learning and Engagement at St Angela’s College, Sligo and is currently a Research Fellow with the Community Knowledge Initiative at the Institute for Lifecourse and Society at NUI Galway. As the Founder of the social enterprise KITE- Keep in Touch Education, Maria undertakes research, consultancy and education projects to promote alumni connections in life for life and fostering active global alumni citizens. Along with her TEDx talk on alumni, Maria is a regular speaker at education and philanthropy conferences worldwide. Maria completed her doctoral studies in alumni relationships at the University of Sheffield and her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto. As Chair of the Sligo Volunteer Centre, she led the successful bid for European Volunteering Capital for Sligo in 2017. She has several academic publications on alumni relations and remains actively involved in all five of her alma maters in Canada, Ireland and the UK.
Rachael Green
Rachael Green has been working in the sector for over 10 years, working her way from a student caller at the University of Birmingham to International Alumni Relations and Acting Alumni Giving Manager at the University of Exeter. Since 2014 Rachael has established the first volunteering programme at Nottingham as part of the Impact Campaign, and is now just about to expand the team working on volunteering and advocacy to a more Faculty aligned model, allowing further support of the student experience. Since 2014 Nottingham have worked with over 3000 volunteers in a range of roles to support the student experience and research, implementing a volunteer stewardship and recognition programme.
Sandra Rincón
With 30 years of experience in international education, Sandra is an expert, trainer and author on international student-alumni engagement.
She co-authored “Engaging International Alumni as Strategic Partner” (NAFSA, 2021) and founded the NL alumni network-Netherlands. She chairs the EAIE´s Alumni Relations Expert Community. She also hosts Brite Ideas, a podcast for advancement professionals and co-edited “The Alumni Connection: Insights and Strategies from Experts” both sponsored by Hivebrite. Sandra is currently completing a PhD on the role of student-alumni engagement in fostering the Sustainable Development Goals. She´s a life-time alumni member of UC Davis Alumni Association and an alum of UC Irvine and California State University, Fullerton in USA.
Jennie Blake
Jennie Blake is Associate Director for Alumni Relations and oversees the Alumni Volunteering programme. Having introduced the programme with the first mentoring programme in 2015, she is passionate about the impact of alumni volunteering on students, the University and the alumni community. She also leads alumni engagement with two Colleges in UCD and drives the corporate sponsorship strategy for major alumni events.
Having worked in the charity sector, and as Head of Development in Volunteer Ireland, she developed a real grá (Irish for passion!) for all things volunteering. Jennie has 20 years experience engaging with multiple stakeholders across the charity, private and education sectors.
Ria Flom
Ria joined the University College Dublin team in 2018 and is responsible for the exponential growth of the UCD Alumni Volunteering programme. She also leads new alumni engagement and supports a busy calendar of pan-University events. To this, her first role in third level education, she brings a proven ability to influence and collaborate across diverse audiences, listening to the complex requirements of various stakeholders to ensure success and a result that addresses needs and exceeds expectations.
Ria is a dynamic, curious, and personable problem-solver, facilitator and networker working with volunteers, teams and senior leaders across the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. She is a dual citizen of the USA and Ireland, originally from Minnesota.
Kate Bauer
Kate is the International Alumni Coordinator for the King’s College London Alumni Office. She graduated from King’s College London and Shakespeare’s Globe with an MA in Shakespeare Studies.
During her undergraduate degree she mentored for Bridge21, an education programme based in Trinity College Dublin, and represented the programme at various events including the EUROSOLE (Erasmus+) Facilitator Workshops in Newcastle University.
Since joining the Alumni team at King’s College London, Kate has supported with the delivery of alumni engagement trips and initiatives, and assisted with the migration to the new Graduway website for their online mentoring platform King’s Connect. Kate currently manages the Alumni Ambassador Programme, which selects alumni to act as a King’s representative within their home country and aid with student recruitment.