My four years serving as WCNY President flew by in a blink, and I enjoyed every minute of it! I learned a lot and grew as a leader in overseeing Wharton’s largest alumni club in the world serving 30,000 alumni in all the New York metropolitan area. That experience was packed with so many “firsts”:

The first Wharton Global Forum to be held in New York City. I had the honor of emceeing the three-day event in 2018, that drew close to 1,000 attendees at Lincoln Center in Manhattan and featured the CEO of Johnson & Johnson, Alex Gorsky; Professor Adam Grant; and business luminaries.

The first Wharton Club in the U.S. to transition to 100%virtual programming, beginning in March 2020. We also held our first virtual Joseph Wharton Awards event in October 2020.

WCNY funded its first Work Relief Program with $200,000 to help alumni affected by COVID-19. WCNY connected alumni to employers with business projects, and WCNY paid selected alumni to complete those projects, giving them meaningful work and a financial lifeline.

The first Equality Task Force was formed to further diversity and inclusion initiatives in business and society.

The first closed-captioning virtual event provided greater accessibility for the hearing impaired.

For the first time, 41% of our event speakers were females, compared with 25% four years ago.

For the first time, WCNY’s all-volunteer Executive Committee was composed of 50% women and 70% minorities as of June 30, 2021!

For the first time, WCNY’s Board of Directors was composed of 36% women and 18% minorities in 2021!

“I am proud of these accomplishments, but I am even prouder to say that
I did not and could not have done this alone. These accomplishments are a testament to the strength, depth and breadth of our alumni volunteers giving of their time and brain power.”

WCNY implemented its first online bill pay platform to more quickly reimburse volunteers and pay vendors.

WCNY utilized text messages for the first time to remind members who opted in for text reminders of events they had RSVP’d for.

WCNY added its first customer relationship management (CRM) tool to improve relationship management with speak-ers, volunteers and important stakeholders.

I am proud of these accomplishments, but I am even prouder to say that I did not and could not have done this alone. These ac-complishments are a testament to the strength, depth and breadth of our alumni volunteers giving of their time and brain power. Our volunteers include board members, the executive committee members, committee chairs and committee members who care deeply about our alumni community, and their actions show it. They put in the thought, collaboration and effort to innovate and execute to bring ideas to fruition. Their ideas and hard work help create value for our alumni community — valuable resources, rela-tionships and learning experiences — that propel alumni forward in their careers, businesses and lives. This dedication and commit-ment to the betterment of our alumni community helped accom-plish such amazing outcomes!

The new President of WCNY, Kofi Kankam, WG’04, alongside our executive committee, will reach new firsts in the next four years. I can’t wait to see what our amazing team of volunteers, under the new leadership with Kofi, can do!

Regina now serves as Co-Founder & CEO of a tech startup Innocuous AI.