The Mace – November 2025 Edition

• Message from the President
• Commencement Roadshow: Cross-Campus Collaborations in Action
• NAACO and You: The Impact of Membership
• NAACO Member Spotlight with Claudia Gil
• Take a Breath: Mindful Moments Between Meetings
• Unlocking the Power of NACCO Connect: A Vital Tool for Commencement Professionals
• Welcome New Institutions and Affiliate Members!
  

Message from President – What I am reading?

Marcus Jones II
NAACO President 2025-2026
Chief of Staff to the Vice Provost and Dean, Arizona State University

Dear NAACO Colleagues,

I hope this message finds you well as we approach the middle of our semesters. I am deeply honored and grateful for the trust you have placed in me to serve as President of our association for this next year. It’s a privilege and honor to represent such a talented and dedicated community and I am optimistic about the future of NAACO and what we will continue to accomplish over the next year and beyond. Our shared commitment of advancing the field of academic ceremonies through intentional connections and sharing knowledge inspire me every day.

Since I have a long commute to work, it allows me the opportunity to reflect and recharge through listening to audiobooks. Truly, between books and podcasts, it’s a great way for me to disconnect from all the hustle and bustle.

One book I recently finished was The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker and it was a great reminder of why we do what we do as commencement planners. Even in the ongoing debate of “return to office” or “return to work” but some people still want to be fully remote, I still believe that there is a strong desire for in person connection. In part, I also believe we play a pivotal role in challenging that notion because of the work we do on each of our campuses to gather people.

I wanted to briefly reflect on one of the prominent themes, intentionality.

We must continue to be intentional about why we produce our academic ceremonies or any of the other events that we produce. More importantly, I think it’s important to be intentional in how we engage each of our audiences. As I always remind my team, even though we may have done this many times before, it may be the student’s first time graduating in a ceremony of our magnitude. If that student is a first-generation college student, it may be the family’s first large celebration. Or it may be a junior faculty member’s first time sitting with their colleagues as a member of the platform party in this capacity.

I hope we can approach our ceremonies with a sense of intentionality to honor the diversity of our academic community not just through representation, but through design. Every element, from the language we use to the symbols we choose should reflect the ever-growing global nature of our ceremonies as we serve more students from abroad and diverse backgrounds.

The Art of Gathering invites us to be intentional about the moments we design to connect people, not just assemble them. Even in our formal ceremonies, we have the opportunity to build brief but meaningful points of connections. These are moments of shared reflection on this joyous occasion, an expression of gratitude to the support our students received and most importantly celebrating someone’s stories that captures the heart of our community.

So, as you continue planning your upcoming ceremonies, I invite you to think about the intention behind your ceremony and why we do what we do.

With gratitude,
Marcus

What’s next on my reading list:

1. Planet Taco – I am a big fan of books about food and history of food so learning about one of my favorite foods.
2. Unreasonable Hospitality – I believe in giving people more than what they expect, so I am excited to learn about how you can turn every day interactions into extraordinary experiences.

If you have recommendations of books, feel free to message me!

Commencement Roadshow: Cross-Campus Collaborations in Action

This past summer, NAACO member universities teamed up to exchange ideas and refine commencement strategies. Two standout collaborations showcase how cross-campus partnerships can spark fresh approaches and shared expertise.

NAACO Southwest Region’s Yearly Roadshow: Cal Baptist’s Summer Ceremonies Spark Collaboration

Pictured left to right: Ester Boloix-Chapman (Loma Linda University), Stephanie Popescu (Loma Linda University), Amber Sega (California Baptist University), Dana McCree (Loma Linda University)

Guests enjoyed a behind-the-scenes tour, witnessed the ceremony, and shared lunch, promoting idea exchange and fostering connections across campuses.

Western Governors Commencement Event: Boston Backstage Tour

Pictured left to right: Lacy Dailey (APUS), Starr Nelson (WGU), Amy Everson (APUS), Lisa Martinez (WGU), Deanna Zanella (SNHU), Amanda Brown-Mather (WGU), Laura Moran (SNHU)

Teams from American Public University System and Southern New Hampshire University connected with the WGU crew at their Boston regional ceremony events to learn about their efficient, action-packed ceremonies.

NAACO and You: The Impact of Membership

Laura Moran
NAACO Communications Committee
Director, Ceremonies and Events Communication, Southern New Hampshire University

On August 20, 2025, members and non-members of the North American Association of Commencement Officers (NAACO) gathered for a Hot Topic Call to reflect on the value of the organization. To listen to this Hot Topic Call, visit the Hot Topic Archive on NAACO Connect.

Presented by NAACO’s Membership Committee and moderated by Deanna Zanella (Southern New Hampshire University), panelists Claudia Davila (University of Arizona), Lindsey Hendricks (Niagara College), and Joanne Sokolowski (Trent University) shared stories that all circled back to one theme: connection.

Key takeaway: Our connections with one another are the best part of being a NAACO member. Keep sharing your resources and asking questions on NAACO Connect! NAACO is more than professional development. It’s a trusted network that makes the work of Commencement planning collaborative and more meaningful.

For Claudia, joining NAACO turned isolation into community. The benefit, she explained, is “learning from others and just picking up the phone or setting up a Zoom call and saying, ‘Hi, how’d you do that? Can you help me?’”. Joanne echoed that sentiment, noting how powerful it was after joining NAACO to finally connect with people who truly understood her role and the language we use (gonfalon, stanchion): “It is really speaking to people who speak our language, who completely understand what you’re doing, what your frustrations are, what your challenges are, and what your joys and celebrations are.”

Lindsay reflected on how she takes so many useful notes at conferences, the most valuable lesson being how to build a risk management document. Putting this strategy into practice not only improved communication across departments but also fostered a deeper understanding within her team. She’s become the “go-to” for ceremony planning at Niagara College, thanks to the ideas, resources, and conversations she brings back from NAACO.

Joanne shared how she now confidently steps into conversations with senior leadership because NAACO keeps her plugged into best practices across North America. “That’s been a huge game-changer… they actually now respect and trust when I say ‘other schools are doing this’”.

When asked about the “best-kept secret” of NAACO, answers ranged from learning from vendors to the open knowledge-sharing among members. The best part? Commencement planning may be complex, but no one has to do it alone. Claudia may have captured it best: “Even in moments where it’s like ‘no one understands me’, just send a colleague a text – it’s magic!”

NAACO Member Spotlight with Claudia Gil

Claudia Gil
Director-At-Large, Events
Associate Director, Office of University Events, New York University

What is something about you that might surprise people?

Something about me that might surprise people is that I’m a shy introvert who doesn’t like public speaking. Maybe I’m an extroverted introvert? Maybe more surprising is that my favorite movie genre is horror—though I won’t watch before bedtime—and I’ve enjoyed a number of heavy metal bands live.

How did you get involved in NAACO originally?

While New York University (NYU), my institution, has been a member of NAACO for about 20 years, we weren’t actively involved until around 2017, after our new director joined the Office of University Events from within our division. With an outlook towards the professional development of her staff, leveraging available event technologies, and incorporating best practices, she invited me to join her at our first NAACO conference in Atlanta in 2018, where we signed up for the certificate program. As part of the program’s requirements, I wrote an article for The Mace. I was fortunate to be able to attend virtual and in-person events like the annual conference and regional meetings, one of which NYU cohosted with Columbia University. I also met NAACO leadership at the conferences and over time they reached out with opportunities to join committees. Since fall 2023, I have served as a member then chair of the Event Experience Committee and this summer was appointed as interim Director-at-Large, Events, an inaugural and exciting role on the Board.

How do you manage your personal wellness (or the wellness of your team) leading up to your events?

Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out how to manage my personal wellness leading up to All-University Commencement because I sometimes focus too deeply and forget to move from my desk. I joke that I miss spring each year because I don’t see the trees and flowers as they bloom or feel the temperature transition, but that’s my own fault. Fortunately, most of our events don’t require managing my own or our team’s wellness, but Commencement can be different. Balance is key and understanding that you will not be able to satisfy every student and parent is absolutely crucial. One of my responsibilities is helping to train and oversee our student staff. I am very much aware that this small team is addressing what can be challenging calls and emails. I like to check in with each of them and make sure they get breaks from the phones. I prefer not to expose the team more than necessary to these challenging interactions. Since our goal is to be promptly and effectively responsive to callers, we encourage callers to email our alias with specific, well thought out questions that our team can then respond to clearly and accurately under less immediate stress. By allowing some of the team to focus on responding to emails while others prepare and pack for the event, we manage to maintain calm and get both customer service and event execution done.

Tell us a personality trait of yours that helps you succeed in your role?

Conscientiousness is one personality trait that helps me succeed in my role. I am organized, persistent, and dependable. I am a list maker, which comes in handy when juggling the different stages in which multiple events might be. I am goal-oriented and appreciate how planning for any event has a beginning, a middle, and an end. I can be annoyingly persistent, gently coming around to the same question until I receive an answer and am able to continue with a process or project. I am dependable, working to partner with or simply support colleagues within my department or outside the department. My curiosity about colleagues’ roles around the university has helped me build invaluable relationships and learn about areas that are not directly in my purview, for example, budgets and emergency management. I find that by understanding the demands and processes of their work, I understand better why I might not be able to get information from them as quickly as I’d like; this teaches me patience and greater empathy.

What is your favorite element or part of commencement day? What is your least favorite?

My favorite element of NYU’s Commencement day is the buildup to the start of the ceremony. A bagpipe remix video kicks us off with NYU Pipe and Drums audio over NYU historical and campus images that segue into contemporary music with an aerial approach to our venue and a procession of school banners, immediately followed by our faculty and school processions. These processions are followed by our NYU Pipe and Drums performing live as they lead the platform party to the stage. There’s nothing like that first note of “Scotland the Brave” to tell you the show has begun!

If I have to pinpoint a least favorite part of Commencement day, it might be the 5:45 a.m. call time.

Have you had a previous job in the past that our readers would find interesting?

In college, I answered a job posting for temporary workers for an election exit polling consortium. This wasn’t a job at the polls, but a position answering phones to accept exit poll results and vote tallies for US elections. I worked in the World Trade Center’s North and South Towers on once-empty floors turned into giant bullpens of phone banks and computer stations as a data entry clerk then, in time, as an assistant state manager, late into the night each election day for about 10 years. It was exciting to get a behind-the-scenes look at how the election results we saw on TV at home were actually gathered.

What do you love most about your work?

I love that while there are certain components to every event, every event is different, meeting my need for balance between doing what I know how to do and encountering challenges that might make me have to find different ways to do things. It’s fascinating to me how a small event can be as much work as a larger one. I love Commencement and the energy, the warm and happy feelings when graduates and their families gather to celebrate years of hard work. But what I love most about my work is the people with whom I’m lucky enough to work. Each of our team members has a different background and life experience and is well-rounded, thoughtful in how they perform their tasks, creative and intentional in devising activations and activities to improve our students’ and guests’ experiences, supportive of one another, and ready to pitch in whenever assistance is needed. I often contribute institutional memory and the voice of “what do we do if…” while some of my colleagues bring their cool-as-a-cucumber demeanor no matter what, knowledge of technology and the latest project management or brainstorming applications, and precise communications strategies based on the audiences we must inform. Our diverse team enables me to continue learning every day.

What do you like to do for fun when you are not planning events?

What I like to do for fun when I’m not planning events depends on how tired I am. My guiltiest simple pleasure might be binge watching horror movies, Midsomer Murders, and HGTV shows, depending on my mood. I also like random and last-minute road trips. Some weekends we’ll just decide to get in the car and drive. We’ve driven two hours to Cold Spring , NY, for Moo Moo’s Creamery ice cream, ended up at Niagara Falls (the Canadian side) in January—it was stunning!—after a Bob Seger concert in Buffalo, driven even farther to Cleveland for a Manowar show, and unsuccessfully chased the Northern Lights to Torrance Barrens Dark-Sky Preserve in Ontario, Canada. Sometimes it really is just about the journey.

Share your favorite NAACO benefit.

There are many benefits to being exposed to and becoming involved with NAACO. I enjoy the Hot Topic discussions because they remind me that we’re often all in the same boat; it’s also helpful to hear that others do what we do so it confirms we’re on the right track. I appreciate how regional leadership is working hard to create opportunities for us to connect more regularly and share solutions and suggestions to common concerns. However, my favorite NAACO benefit is the opportunity to engage with intelligent, creative, generous, and dedicated professionals who are giving and supportive of each other. I’ve been fortunate to form connections with colleagues during remote sessions as well as at the annual NAACO conference. I remember the first members I met and how friendly they were. I am still surprised by and grateful to the ones who saw something in me that I didn’t expect. More recently I’ve noticed conversations, not just about event planning and execution, but about our professional development and growth. This has been exciting because members are asking hard questions—How do I move up? How do I get leadership to accept the value of what we do at our institution?—and getting answers from those who have been doing just that. And I hope more members will consider contributing their ideas and expertise to keep NAACO evolving and developing into the organization they want NAACO to be. To quote NAACO past president Liz McMahan during the presidents panel in Long Beach last February, please remember that “Leadership is not a title. It’s a quality.”

Take a Breath: Mindful Moments Between Meetings

Laura Moran
NAACO Communications Committee
Director, Ceremonies and Events Communication, Southern New Hampshire University

Here are three approachable grounding exercises perfect for implementing between meetings or to fall asleep after waking at 3 a.m. with a racing mind. They are fast, accessible, and proven to reset focus and calm the nervous system. During high-stress events like Commencement and Convocation, these same techniques become even more valuable. By lowering stress responses in the body and promoting calm clarity, they allow us to stay present, make level-headed decisions, and respond to challenges with resilience.

Caption: Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

1. Box Breathing
   This is one of the techniques used by Navy SEALs to stay calm in high-stress situations.
   • Inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4. Repeat a few cycles to reset stress and sharpen focus.

   This method stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system to promote relaxation, reduce stress, and sharpen clarity.

2. 5-4-3-2-1 Sensory Grounding
   This technique can help ground you in the present when your mind is racing.
   • Notice 5 things you see, 4 you feel, 3 you hear, 2 you smell, 1 you taste.

   This exercise intentionally shifts attention from anxious thoughts to the immediate environment by using your five senses.

3. Rooted Chair Grounding
   This technique builds off of box breathing and adds visualization for added stress reduction.
   • Begin with the box breathing strategy #1.
   • While breathing, imagine your feet growing roots into the ground. Envision tension flowing down through your body, out through those roots into the floor.

   Combining breathwork with mindful visualization, this technique anchors your awareness in the physical present and provides a quick mental and physical reset.

Unlocking the Power of NACCO Connect: A Vital Tool for Commencement Professionals

Alexa Morgan
NAACO Communications Committee
Ceremonies and Protocol Officer, University Events, Capilano University

As commencement and convocation officers, we often face complex logistical questions, unexpected challenges, and unique institutional policies. Whether you’re planning your 30th ceremony or your first, it helps to have a community of peers who understand the ins and outs of what you do.

The NACCO Connect Forum is that community and it’s one of the most valuable tools available to members of the North American Association of Commencement Officers. Yet, many of us are missing out on its full potential.

What is NACCO Connect?
NACCO Connect is an online discussion platform exclusively for members. It’s a space where you can ask questions, share ideas, and exchange advice with fellow professionals who get it — from regalia coordination and rain plans to speaker protocols and accessible seating.

Why Use the Forum? Here Are Just a Few Reasons:

1. Real-Time Problem Solving with Real Peers
   Need advice on managing ticketing for a growing guest list? Want to know how other institutions handle multiple ceremonies in one day? The forum offers near-instant feedback from people who’ve been in your shoes. This feedback is then shared by you to your university’s leaders, lending weight to your recommendations.
2. Shared Resources and Templates
   Many members share actual templates, guides, timelines, and vendor feedback, these resources can save hours of work.
3. Cross-Border Perspectives
   Because NACCO brings together professionals from both Canada and the U.S., members benefit from a wide range of practices, policies, and creative ideas that might not exist within your own regional network.
4. Encouragement and Community
   Sometimes, you just need to know someone else has faced the same challenge. Whether it’s dealing with last-minute speaker cancellations or navigating policy changes, the forum is a space for support and solutions that you can confidently bring to your institution.

Posts That Made an Impact
Over the past six months, several threads have generated especially high engagement, a testament to the collective wisdom and willingness of members to help each other:

• Customer service during high demand periods
• Medics
• Ticketing
• Closed captioning
• Stage rentals

These conversations not only solved immediate problems for the original posters but also provided a knowledge base others can learn from long after the thread ends.

How to Get Started (or Re-engaged)
If it’s been a while since you’ve visited the NACCO Connect Forum, here’s how you can jump back in:

• Bookmark NAACO Connect and log in
• Select Discussions on the top menu bar
• Click on the discussion category called NAACO General Discussion
• Scroll or use the search bar to browse existing discussions to see what’s trending
• Click blue Add Topic button to post a question or share a win, even a small tip can make a big difference to someone else

Other Engagement Tools

• Set up notifications – go to your name on the top right, click account settings, click on “subscriptions” and select “community digest weekly”. Don’t forget to add NAACO Connect to your email safe list so the notifications go to your inbox and not to SPAM.
• Search and email for members — go to the Search Users section to filter or search for members in the directory.
• Update your profile — go to your name on the top right, click to view your profile, click the edit button in the About Me and Contact Information section to update your account.

Your Voice Matters
The Connect Forum is only as strong as the voices within it. The more we share our questions, our wins, our lessons learned, the stronger our profession becomes. Whether you’re from a large university or a small college, your insight is valuable.
Let’s make the most of the NACCO community. Let’s connect.

Welcome New Institutions!

NAACO is the only professional association for college and university commencement and convocation officers throughout North America. Only post-secondary institutions that handle commencement, convocation, and graduation ceremonies are welcome to join.

Affiliate members are the individuals of a member institution and can be added by the primary NAACO member. We look to engage with affiliate members on NAACO Connect, on social media sites, and at upcoming events, including hot topic calls, the annual conference, and regional meetings.

Let’s welcome these institutions that are new to NAACO:

Connect with Fellow NAACO Colleagues

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