Case Study · June – October 2022

White Waters,
Black Joy

As the elected Events Committee Chair of the SCAD Black Alumni Coalition, bringing a global alumni community offline for the first time — solo, on a minimal budget, with unanimous five-star results.

OrganizationSCAD Black Alumni Coalition

Duration4 Months

RoleElected Events Committee Chair

100+

First-ever in-person attendees

5★

Unanimous feedback

Elected volunteer — entire committee

External budget

Context

This wasn't a client engagement.
It was elected leadership in service of community.

The SCAD Black Alumni Coalition is a global community open to all SCAD graduates — part of the SCAD Alumni Society, managed by the Office for Career and Alumni Success. Its mission: to create a lifelong worldwide network of alumni engagement and partnership, increasing opportunities, mentorship, and philanthropic commitment among Black graduates of SCAD. As its elected Events Committee Chair, this work was done entirely in a volunteer capacity. The events committee had one member: me.

The Work

An active community that had
never shared a room.

The Challenge

First gathering. No precedent.

The BAC had been serving its members online — a real, active community that had simply never gathered in person. The task was to design that first physical gathering: meaningful enough to matter, executable on a near-zero budget, and good enough to set the standard for everything that followed.

The Approach

Design for belonging, not attendance

The concept — "Black Joy in White Spaces" — was chosen deliberately. It named the specific experience of being a Black creative inside a predominantly white institution, and the joy that persists anyway. That framing gave the event cultural weight before anyone walked in. SCAD provided the venue. Everything else was built by one person.

Work Delivered

Every role.
One elected volunteer.

Event Concept & Creative Direction

Developed the "Black Joy in White Spaces" concept — naming the cultural tension at the center of the community's experience and building an event format that honored it. The concept became the creative foundation for every decision that followed.

Panel Curation, Scripting & Hosting

Identified and secured an exceptional panel of industry professionals, wrote the full script and discussion framework, and hosted the conversation on the day — moving between the roles of producer, moderator, and MC as the event demanded.

Operations & Event Blueprint

Produced all marketing collateral, created detailed event rundowns, and defined team roles — establishing the operational infrastructure the coalition could carry into every future event, long after this one was over.

"We appreciate all the time and work you contribute as part of the BAC leadership. We look forward to many more successful events like 'White Waters, Black Joy' and supporting the coalition as it continues to grow."

Grace Grund — Director of Alumni Relations, SCAD

In the Room