Jessica Shepard Watts
University of Texas at Dallas
Following my first NACRO conference in 2012, I joined the Conference Planning Committee for two years. In 2014, I led the development of Blueprint Day and created new processes to welcome and engage new NACRO members. For the last three years, I have proudly served on the Marketing Committee, and joined the executive team as co-vice president in 2016. As an executive committee member, I am very excited about the opportunities to effectively impact the organization with a purview over multiple committees. Building a member network includes improving member benefits such as professional development offerings, white papers and benchmarking surveys. It also includes member outreach to universities that have not been active in NACRO. These efforts will broaden the reach of our organization and improve the diversity of our membership.
As Senior Director of Corporate Relations, Watts is responsible for developing and executing strategies to build and grow corporate partnerships across campus. In a central office, her team manages philanthropic and research partnerships that engage companies across eight academic schools and 25 centers & institutes. Watts joined UT Dallas in 2012 after six years at the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, where she managed the largest corporate giving campaigns and a portfolio of major gift donors. Watts serves on several chamber and nonprofit boards, including the NACRO Board of Directors as chair of the Marketing Committee. She holds a bachelor’s degree from UT Arlington, a master’s degree from UT Dallas and is currently pursuing her PhD in public affairs at UT Dallas.
UT Dallas Corporate Relations Website: http://www.utdallas.edu/corporate/