A Cambridge executive has won a rare speaker’s award given to just 17 people worldwide over the past two decades.
Director of External Affairs at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, Nathalie Walker has been honoured with a Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Crystal Apple award for her excellence in teaching and service to CASE Europe. CASE is a global professional association serving educational institutions and professionals. It is one of the largest non-profit educational membership associations, comprised of 3,600 educational institutions and non-profit organisations in 82 countries. The organisation is led by volunteers, with more than 4,500 professionals serving as board members, speakers, authors, conference planners and more, to help members build stronger alumni and donor relationships, fundraise for campus projects, market their institutions, and encourage public support of education. The CASE Crystal Apple is achieved by volunteer speakers who receive outstanding feedback and evaluation from their peers at conferences and seminars. On receiving ten “stellar speaker” scores, which represent excellent teaching, a volunteer speaker is honoured with the CASE Crystal Apple award for excellence in teaching. In its twenty year history, only seventeen volunteers from the CASE Europe community have achieved this recognition. This year, Nathalie and two peers will be joining this group. Kate Hunter, Director of CASE Europe, commended Nathalie’s work with CASE:
This award is our way of recognising not only Nathalie’s dedication to the advancement profession but also her skills in sharing her knowledge in such a way that truly engages audiences and stimulates ideas and change. It is a truly remarkable achievement.
Nathalie has served as a volunteer for CASE since 2006, specialising in alumni relations and fundraising. In the last year alone she has held nine CASE talks, workshops and discussion sessions including: ‘Alumni Relations beyond fundraising’; ‘Networking lessons from the movies’; ‘Managing and running a volunteer network’; and ‘Integrating international outreach plans with overall alumni engagement strategy’. In addition to speaking at CASE conferences in the UK, Singapore, Australia and Ghana, Nathalie also serves on the Commission for Alumni Relations, chairs the annual CASE Europe Alumni Relations Institute and has authored a chapter for a CASE book, The Newcomer’s Guide to Alumni Relations. Nathalie considers her experience with CASE to be a privilege that empowers her to work for the greater benefit of education: “I’ve been the beneficiary of the advice and experience of countless exceptional professionals who have spent time and energy sharing their professional expertise at conferences, and it’s an honour to be given the opportunity to share my experiences with others. “It’s a remarkable profession because everyone is so open to sharing ideas and best practices. Whilst our institutions are competing on some levels, professional colleagues share the philosophy that all boats rise with the tide and the more we can do to raise standards and aspirations the better we will serve our mission to advance and support education overall. I should also add that being a CASE volunteer is tremendously good fun and you get to work with brilliant people!” Nathalie was presented with her award on Thursday 28 August 2014 during the closing plenary of the CASE Europe Annual Conference in Edinburgh.