LaQuita McMillan: Rallying support

As the director of constituent relations and leadership development, LaQuita McMillan encourages UNT alumni to again become involved with the university.

McMillan tracks down former students who actively participated in campus organizations and student activities. She researches old yearbooks and contacts former students who served as leaders in college and have now become leaders in their communities.

She searches for people just like herself.

During her years as an education major at North Texas, the 1960 graduate rooted for the Eagles as a cheerleader and kicked up her boots as the commander of Angel Flight, an honorary drill team for the Air Force ROTC.

She served as the personnel chair of Chi Omega sorority and the sophomore class secretary. McMillan also received membership to an English honor society, and she even wore the Homecoming queen crown — all before graduating in fewer than four years.

After graduating, McMillan taught at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas and was a substitute teacher in Plano before marrying and raising a family of four children. When her youngest child was in high school, McMillan's outgoing personality and her love for her alma mater brought her back to UNT in 1985.

"When I began working full-time after my children had grown, I looked for a positive and cheerful environment to work in," McMillan says.

She found that environment in the UNT development office. Her job keeps her involved in the community and in constant contact with alumni.

McMillan currently represents the university in the Plano Chamber of Commerce by serving on the education council. She is a member of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and a former member of the Executive Women in Texas Government. She also dedicates many hours to committees and events through the North Texas Exes.

Although she has put away her pompoms and Homecoming crown, McMillan continues to cheer for UNT and to rally support from alumni and the community.

"When I talk to alumni, I want to make them proud of UNT," McMillan says. "I try to show them everything that we have accomplished and that UNT is a place that soars."

BY JENNY McCORMACK paiswri2@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue:

• Future UNT-Dallas campus chosen as site of Olympic Village for Dallas 2012 proposal
• Staff to address graduates during Aug. 12 ceremony
• Scholarship available for Leadership Texas
• Parking permit deadlines approach; new payment plan implemented
• Librarian teaches art of old-fashioned bookbinding
• UNT names interim director for women's studies program
• Sidewalk work nears end
• Job hirers show bias against regional accents, study suggests
• Hawley studies sacred clothing of Amish, Mormons

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