Campus Advisory Groups

Tracy McCabe is assistant dean for external and alumni affairs for the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign responsible for communications and alumni operations.  Prior to joining the University, Mr. McCabe spent nine years at Solo Cup Company in Highland Park, IL where he directed sales administration, e-commerce and forecasting operations, and assumed acquisition integration and brand management responsibilities.  While at Solo, Mr. McCabe was the administrative lead on custom application development projects for customer, product, pricing and sales administration software applications.  He proudly holds two degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: an undergraduate degree in English and a masters from the Executive MBA program.  Mr. McCabe is an advocate for the arts and serves on the board of directors for Champaign Urbana Ballet in Champaign, IL where he resides.

Dr. Arkalgud Ramaprasad is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and a Professor in the Department of Information and Decision Sciences (IDS) in the College of Business Administration. From 2000-2006 he was the Head of IDS at UIC and the Director of the Center for Research in Information Management (CRIM) there. He teaches courses and conducts research in management of information. He has been at the University of Illinois at Chicago since fall 2000. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 1980; MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India, 1972; and B.E. (Electrical), from the University of Mysore, Karnataka, India, 1970.

Lisa Whelpley received her MS (1994) degree in Leisure Studies from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with specialization in festival and special events and leisure during courtship. She has been the Director of Annual Giving for the University of Illinois at Springfield since 2001. For three years she has taught a class on fundraising for the UIS Masters in Public Administration program. She has worked for more than 13 years in fund raising. Prior positions include Project Coordinator at the Illinois 4-H Foundation (Champaign, IL) and Development Director at the Central Illinois Foodbank (Springfield, IL). Lisa holds a Bachelor of Science in Athletic Training and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Miami University. She serves as a Trustee for the Chatham Area Public Library District.

University of Illinois Alumni Association Advisory Group
Paula Gray Havlik phavlik@ad.uiuc.edu
Leader

Paula Havlik received her BA ('77) and MA ('79) degrees from the Department of Speech Communication at the University of Illinois.  She has been a UI staff member since 1984, serving in public relations, annual giving, major giving and alumni affairs positions for a variety of units, including WILL-AM-FM-TV, the Office of Women's Studies, Robert Allerton Park and Conference Center, and the School of Social Work.  She joined the staff of the University of Illinois Alumni Association in 1998, working primarily with college and department-based alumni associations and regional alumni clubs.  In her new role as the UIAA @ Urbana's Director for Advancement Initiatives, she facilitates ongoing dialogue and strategic relationships with campus and University advancement partners, and builds strategies for focusing UIAA resources on broad-impact advancement efforts that mobilize alumni for the greater good of the University.

Susan Restad is Executive Director for Information Resource Management, at the University of Illinois Foundation. She has 22 years experience in development information technology at the University of Illinois. She is responsible for strategic IT planning and operations, including database enhancements, data integrity, reporting services, and end user support (training/help desk) in support of the 600+ users of the Universities development data systems. Susan holds a BA, in General Studies from Eastern Illinois University (1993), and an AAS, in Business Management from Parkland College (1984).