Temilade (Temi) Akin-Aina is Associate Vice President, Alumni Relations at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. She joined the Western team in fall 2022, making the move from Concordia University, where she was Associate Director of Alumni Relations. She earned her bachelor's degree in history and political science at McGill University, which is where she began her career as an advancement professional 15 years ago.
You’ve dedicated your higher education career to alumni engagement. What drew you to this area of advancement?
My parents were university professors in Nigeria. When my siblings and I were teenagers, we used to help our mom with the first round of grading in her introduction to psychology classes. We still tease her that we were her unpaid teaching assistants. Higher education was part of our home life. I’ve always believed and understood that education is one of the biggest levers by which people can change their lives. I love the dynamism of alumni relations—bringing communities together. I found a career I love that allows me to support higher education.
Did you have any mentors along the way?
I have worked with amazing leaders that threw me into challenges and allowed me to make decisions and partner with colleagues at all levels. That set the foundation for me being able to seek this role at Western and feel I had everything I needed to make an impact here.
I need to name one mentor in particular, Leisha LeCouvie. We worked together at McGill and also at Concordia. She was a strong sponsor and ally, and provided me with many career-defining opportunities.
Mentoring is very important to me and I enjoy mentoring colleagues on my team. I think about it as having great relationships in the workplace.
What attracted you to the new position at Western University?
The promise of Western—it’s a distinctive name in Canadian higher education. Western is a founding member of the U15—Canada’s most distinguished research universities—with 12 faculties and professional programs in medicine, business, law, and engineering. There is a long-standing history of academic excellence and a lot of alumni pride and affinity here. We have 330,000 alumni in 161 countries and I’m so excited about the opportunities to engage with them.
You were at Concordia when the pandemic hit. How did you pivot to keep alumni engaged?
We had already done some virtual programming when the pandemic hit. So the president asked us to take the lead in pumping out virtual content. It was a great opportunity for the alumni relations team to show our creativity. One of our first initiatives was to showcase our performing arts students, who danced and sang their way into the living rooms of alumni across the world. We also worked with students, alumni, and colleagues across campus to host virtual dance parties. It was a vibe! And what a wonderful way to bring in different cultures and generations. The parties were incredibly popular.
Is virtual alumni programming here to stay?
I think tactically and strategically, it has to be. It presents both challenges and opportunities as we go beyond the kind of virtual event-based programming we did during the pandemic to provide programs that allow for in-person engagement along with meaningful, synchronous options to engage on a global scale.
CBC Quebec recognized you in its 2022 Black Changemakers series, in part for the work you did at Concordia to help launch a Black Alumni Council, a Black Alumni Network, and a Black Student Career Development Series. Can you tell us about that work?
With the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and the renewed call for racial justice, a lot of universities were grappling with the experience of Black students and alumni. The Concordia president established a task force to review and make recommendations to combat anti-Black racism, and I chaired the fundraising and community engagement subcommittee. These efforts also aligned with work that was being done nationally across Canadian institutions under the Scarborough Charter (a formal commitment made by post-secondary institutions to take concrete action to address anti-Black racism and promote Black inclusion in Canadian higher education).
Our alumni engagement team recruited volunteers for our Black Alumni Council who made recommendations for speakers and programming for Black alumni affinity programming. The goal was to foster greater community and a sense of belonging and voice for Concordia Black alumni. There has been a lot of interest, support, and participation. Supporting inclusivity only makes our universities and our sense of community and belonging stronger.
Are affinity groups the wave of the future in alumni engagement?
It is important for alumni relations teams to have a multi-pronged strategy around engagement. Alumni are showing that they like to engage through groups with like interests and common experiences, whether that be athletics, academics, class year, geography, or culture and race. But we still have to allow for mass engagement. We need to provide multiple opportunities for people to walk through the door of alumni programming, and that means leaving room for a bit of serendipity.
What are the biggest challenges currently facing alumni relations professionals?
I see two. First, there’s the engagement metrics and data piece. We have long understood the metrics related to fundraising, and now we are in early stages of tracking and showcasing the value of engagement through metrics. CASE is leading the way with definitions and surveys, and already I see that leading to greater professionalism in our field.
The other challenge is being strategic about where and how we engage with alumni populations. How do we engage with different generations with varying expectations while building a long-term strategy that is inclusive and expansive?