W. Lee Bussell thinks of his time at Carolina as a “high-speed elevator” to success and wants current and future students to have the same experience at the University that he did.

         That’s one of the chief reasons the chair and chief executive officer of Chernoff Newman in Columbia, one of the state’s largest communications firms, has maintained his extraordinary level of alumni involvement at USC.

         In addition to helping start the New Carolinians in the early 1980s, Bussell, a 1982 graduate in advertising and public relations, was the group’s chairman and was honored as the New Carolinian of the Year in 1982.

He has also served several times on the Alumni Association’s Board of Governors since the late 1980s, has volunteered his firm’s time to help the association’s development efforts, taught courses in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, chaired the school’s Partnership Board, co-chaired its new building fund campaign committee, and received the school’s Alumni Service Award and Distinguished Alumni Award.

         His service on the Alumni Association’s Board of Governors culminated July 1 when he succeeded Amy E. Stone, ’72, ’76 master’s, as association president, a pulpit from which he intends to rally fellow graduates to become more advocacy oriented on the University’s behalf.

         “Carolina has more than a quarter of a million alumni who can play a tremendous role in helping to shape the future of the University,” said Bussell, who wants to “get alumni out of the stands as spectators and onto the playing field to help us move the ball forward. They’re in a unique position to let various audiences in the state know that they support the University.”

         A robust engagement of graduates by the Alumni Association will also help bolster its membership rolls and boost the octane level of their presence as Carolina advocates, Bussell added. To that end, he anticipates the association’s continued awareness and adoption of the digital communications and social marketing megatrends that “change the way we communicate and interact with each other” and will ultimately extend its reach as a global organization.

Another priority is continued work on construction of an Alumni Center that will serve the entire University community.

         “The center will be a critical element in our ability to increase our association’s role in University advancement and advocacy,” Bussell said. “We’re working closely with the University and our members on a path to the Alumni Center in the near future.”