Alumni Director

Meet Your New Director

Ask anyone around campus and they probably know Keith McIver. He’s known for stopping by offices “just to say hi,” catching up with students in the dining hall and cheering on Cougar Athletics … often leaving a trail of reading glasses in his wake. Today, even with Zoom meetings minimizing face-toface contact and a new pair of everyday glasses to keep him focused, McIver is still on the move. In August, he took the reins of the Columbia College Alumni Association as Director of Alumni Development.

Keith McIver, Director of Alumni Development

Tell us a little about yourself and your background.

My foundations are family, faith and service. I was born and raised on the coast of South Carolina, near Myrtle Beach. My family still lives there.

I attended college in Massachusetts and graduate school in New York City. NYC is a wonderful place to live, but I have also called Boston, Washington, D.C., and Columbia, South Carolina, home.

I most enjoy listening to the piano, and I am also a fan of the symphony orchestra. When I first moved to mid-Missouri, I traveled to Chicago to listen to the Chicago Symphony play Mahler #6.

How did you get your start in higher education?

I began working for Columbia College in April 2008 as the director of its location at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, South Carolina. Most of my students were on active duty.

What prompted your move from a location director to Development?

In 2015, I was invited to move to Columbia, Missouri, to hone my skills in fundraising and development. I enjoy turning philanthropists’ ideas and investments into realities for our students and donors.

What professional expertise are you most excited to bring to the Alumni Association?

The “new normal” of remote meetings has presented a great opportunity as I move in to this new role of alumni development. While we have paused our travels and faceto-face gathering for the foreseeable future, I have to get creative when programming alumni events.

If this crisis has taught us anything, it is that we are forced to think differently about how we do business. We have 94,000 living alumni, but regional events allow us to engage with a small percentage. I’m planning a number of virtual alumni events over the next few months that are available to alumni nationwide. They are broken into social events, careerfocused discussions and town hall lectures – I’m calling them “Cougar Conversations” – where faculty members will talk about relevant, topical events that are a part of the college’s educational curriculum.

Why are you proud to work at Columbia College?

It is a small institution that has allowed me to grown personally and professionally. While I no longer work directly with students, I have always enjoyed encouraging them, listening to their stories and providing advice.

If a colleague were to describe you in five words or less, what would they say?

Kindness, empathetic, collegial, team player and friend –CP