Shortly after Olivia Marmion ’05 moved back to Georgetown in 2021 with her husband and three children, she began running into Southwestern students across town–at the grocery store, at the gym, and at local restaurants. As these encounters became more frequent, Marmion decided to attend a Black Student Life panel to check in on her alma mater. Hearing students express some of the same sentiments that she had as a student two decades prior, Marmion began thinking about ways she could give back to the University and support current students.

“I felt a duty to check in on the students at Southwestern now that I was so close,” she said. “I wanted to be a resource, but I knew that I couldn’t do it alone.”

With the idea to create a resource for students and alumni, Marmion began reaching out to her contacts within the SU community, including fellow Black alumni, University staff, and current students. Marmion explicitly credits Anderson Johnson ’24, Austin Gordon ’26, Chaplain and Director of Spiritual Life Ronald Swain, Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations Grace Pyka, and the Alumni Council—namely, Dr. Sammie Robinson ’73, Liz Guillory Medina ’97, Rachel Thompson ’23, Ben Woods ’06, and Latoya Alexander ’08, who, with their overwhelming support, she was able to found the SU Black Alumni Network.

Officially launched in early 2025, the SU Black Alumni Network aims to provide a support system for Southwestern students and alumni through networking, special events, and service. Led by a core team that includes Marmion, Robinson, and Woods, the Black Alumni Network provides an outlet not only for alumni to connect with each other and the University, but also a community for current students.

“The Black Alumni Network is about building connections and a community of support for current students, but it’s also a way to keep our Black alumni connected,” Woods said. “It has been instrumental in increasing Black alumni involvement with the University. It has provided a way to get alumni in front of current students to share experiences and solidify the legacy that they’ve built by passing down the things they’ve learned and their experiences as students of Southwestern.”

As a team, Marmion, Robinson, and Woods each draw upon their unique experiences at Southwestern when leading the Black Alumni Network. During their time at Southwestern in the mid-2000s, Marmion and Woods were two of only about two dozen Black students enrolled at the University.

For Marmion, attending Southwestern from her culturally diverse hometown of Houston when the University was predominantly white proved to be a bit of a culture shock. The communities that she built outside of her English literature major and studio art minor proved invaluable.

“I started to find my community on campus by being intentional about building relationships with those who look like me and share my culture,” Marmion said. “The similar stories that we were able to share with one another really anchored me to Southwestern and drew me in closer. That made me feel like Southwestern was a place where I did belong. It made me appreciate all that Southwestern had to offer.”

After graduating with a communication studies degree, Woods stayed in Central Texas, allowing him to remain connected with his alma mater. With a passion for giving back to the University that gave him so much, he has been an active member of the Southwestern Alumni Council. In that role, he was constantly thinking about how to get more Black alumni involved on campus. When Marmion approached him about launching the Black Alumni Network, he was all in.

“The Black experience can be very unique, so it’s nice to provide a space for students to have support and mentorships and connections to really help guide them,” he said. “My hope is that they feel connected and feel community. They’re not in this alone. There’s people that have been there and have had experiences that they may be able to relate to. They’re seeing alumni that look like them who are successful out in the world.”

Robinson holds the distinction of being among the first Black graduates of Southwestern, earning her degree in accounting in 1973. She attended Southwestern at a time when the University was integrating the student body and expanding its efforts to enroll more Black students. Her experiences at Southwestern shaped both her personal and professional life, one in which she earned an MBA from Southern Methodist University and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas before a long and successful career as a business professor, management consultant, and executive coach.

“Southwestern gave me so much,” Robinson said. “I have recognized the value of a Southwestern education as the years have passed. I’m gratified to see the number of Black students who are on campus now. I think the Black Alumni Network is very much needed because, while we are making progress, there are a couple of things that I’m seeing and hearing that could be improved. I want to see the Black Alumni Network be a real force for addressing some of those things.”

As the group’s historian, Robinson provides a crucial link between Southwestern’s current generation of Black students and the group of students who helped integrate the University in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“I think that you should always remain connected to the community that you are from,” she said. “The fact that I’m a Black alum, in my mind, means that I am obligated to connect to those who have come after me, because it helps to honor what I did. I think you should always save a place for the group where you hold membership.”

Despite being named Homecoming Queen during her senior year in 1973, Homecoming always felt out of place for Robinson and the Black community at Southwestern. After all, during the early 1970s, Southwestern only had one Black alumnus: Ernest Clark, the University’s first Black student who graduated in 1969. With those experiences top of mind, Robinson, Marmion, and Woods collaborated to host the SU Black Alumni Network’s first big event, a “family reunion” during Homecoming Weekend in 2025, designed to give students, alumni, and staff a space to gather and celebrate.

“It was a way to connect and to celebrate all that we have brought to Southwestern and to the community on campus,” Marmion said. “We connected in a real way that felt like family. It was a living historical moment. It was the first time that anything like this had happened. It was so very well attended and that fact made our core group feel that much more empowered. This is something that is necessary–for us to come back and connect and remember.”

A celebration that spanned across Homecoming Weekend, the SU Black Alumni Network’s family reunion featured a happy hour, a tailgate in conjunction with the Black Student Union, and a group outing to the Pirates football game before a grand finale dinner filled with connection, laughter, storytelling, and history.

“We had a blast. It was so successful,” Robinson said. “Ben had such a great idea to call it a family reunion, and it was so beautiful. What really made it beautiful for me was that we had current students there, we had alumni there, and we had the families of former employees there. I was so gratified to see how many Black people have worked at Southwestern.”

The event allowed generations of Southwestern students and alumni to connect, creating bonds and memories that reinforced the ideals that the SU Black Alumni Network was founded upon.

“So many things have evolved over the years that a lot of people put a lot of work into making happen,” Woods said. “It’s important that students know there was a lot of groundwork done to get us to where we are today. There’s things I’ve learned from some of the first Black students at Southwestern, including Dr. Robinson. It was so important to me to hear that history, and to pass it down to be remembered.”

On the heels of the success of the Network’s first big event, the organization has continued to show support, hosting a “Roll to the Polls” event last November to encourage student voting participation, as well as a food drive to support the Pirate Pantry.

More recently, the organization has supported and encouraged attendance at a variety of Black History Month events in and around Georgetown. The SU Black Alumni Network has also made an emphasis to support and uplift the work of Southwestern’s Black and multicultural student organizations, including the Black Student Union, JEDI Center, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

“It’s so important to remember that community is in our DNA,” Marmion said. “We are so much stronger together than we are apart. As an alum, it’s so important to give back and to share knowledge with the generations that are coming after us. We are standing on the shoulders of giants. It’s because of the support and the network that we have had from other people that we are able to be successful. Not forgetting that is so important as we continue to do great things out in this world as Southwestern alumni.”

Those interested in getting involved with the SU Black Alumni Network are encouraged to visit the organization’s Instagram and Facebook pages to learn more and stay connected, as there are more exciting things to come. The group also hosts a volunteer intake form for those looking to donate their time and talents to the organization.

“I would like for our current Black students to get introduced to the Network very early, and for them to look forward to seeing the Black Alumni Network at Southwestern events,” Robinson said. “I’m really hopeful for the things that I know the Black Alumni Network is going to be. I think we’re going to be a force for drawing in some of these former Black students and alumni who, for whatever reason, just haven’t connected. We’re going to bring them home.”