For the first time, Western Kentucky University’s Alumni Association will have an executive director who is not a Hilltopper alum.

Anthony McAdoo, a graduate of the University of Arkansas and currently the assistant vice president for advancement and the senior director for the University of Oregon Alumni Association, will take over the WKU Alumni Association on June 20.

“Typically our past alumni directors have all been WKU graduates,” said Ginny Hensley, director of alumni programming at WKU. “Anthony brings experience from other universities. He’s been in incredibly successful alumni programs across the country. We are very excited that he is going to bring that experience to WKU.”

Before his job at Oregon, McAdoo worked for the alumni association at his alma mater in leadership roles over a span of 10 years. He also received his doctorate in higher education leadership at Arkansas.

“I was definitely excited to be hired at WKU,” McAdoo said in an interview Thursday. “I actually had another offer on the table from another institution, but WKU was just the best choice for me.”

Marc Archambault, WKU’s vice president of development and alumni relations, said McAdoo’s hiring came after an extensive search process in which McAdoo was one of three finalists for the position.

“For Anthony (McAdoo), the thing that stood out the most for the search committee was the really extensive amount of professional experience that he will bring to the job, his success at other institutions and his ability to articulate those in really concrete terms,” Archambault said.

McAdoo said multiple factors played into choosing WKU over the other job offer that was on the table.

“When I came out to interview, I was very impressed with the interview process,” McAdoo said. “In WKU I saw an institution that had an upward trajectory and a very strong alumni association. I’ve actually already gotten to work by doing some background research so I can hit the ground running whenever I get to WKU.”

The search committee expects that McAdoo will help to significantly increase the level of alumni engagement with WKU among other expectations, Archambault said.

“We look for him to take ownership of the Augenstein Alumni Center and to manage that resource effectively,” Archambault said. “He will play a role in helping to sustain and then grow our traditions of spirit here at WKU.”

“I think he will also be an innovator, which is also one of the things that we are really hoping that in this day and age of real financial challenges that he is going to have to generate a lot of his own resources to deliver programs to our alumni,” Archambault said.

When McAdoo arrives on campus, he plans to immediately work towards some particular expectations for himself with his new position.

“On day one, establishing relationships with everyone is the most important thing for me,” McAdoo said. “My biggest goal is to improve engagement with our alumni. I want to make everywhere Hilltopper country – especially in this region and state.”