Past National President

Kappa
Catholic University of America

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Where it All Began:

Aaron was inducted into the Kappa Chapter, in our Nation’s Capital, Washington, D.C., on April 17th, 2010. Aaron quickly stepped into the roles of Assistant Candidate Educator, Vice President, Candidate Educator, and Treasurer until he was elected as Chapter President in April 2012. The Brothers of Kappa Chapter voted him to be the recipient of the Walter Dove Award (Kappa's Brother of the Year) in his final semester as an active. In May 2013 he graduated from The Catholic University of America earning two bachelor degrees, one in International Politics and the other in Biblical Studies, with a minor in Philosophy.

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The Council Years:

At the 81st National Convention in Louisville, KY, in 2012, Aaron was elected to the National Council of Alpha Delta Gamma as the National Student Representative. Under his leadership, communications improved between chapters, and he improved active member participation in all Fraternal holidays. At the 82nd National Convention in Nashville, TN, he was voted as a co-steward for the first national convention hosted in Indianapolis, IN, in 2015. There he was awarded a Presidential Citation from Matt Berkshire. In 2013, Aaron was appointed to the editor of the Alphadelity, a position he held until 2019, when he recommended Austin Stout to be appointed as his replacement to the position by National President Andrew Brothers.

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In 2013, Aaron was appointed as National Council Secretary as well as the Ombudsmen of Alpha Delta Chapter at Cabrini University in Radnor, PA. Aaron was also appointed as a board member to the Capital City Alumni Association's Board of Directors, where he still serves today. As the Secretary for the National Council, Aaron was responsible for keeping all minutes from council meetings and national events. During this year, Aaron was integral in the creation and foundation of our Alpha Iota Chapter at Felician University in Lodi, NJ. It was not uncommon for Aaron to make the five-hour drive from D.C. to attend meetings and colony events. They were chartered as a new chapter at the 83rd National Convention in Fort Lauderdale, FL. At the very same National Convention, Aaron was elected as the National Vice President of Internal Affairs. He also was awarded with the President’s Award - Alumnus of the Year.

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During his first term as Vice President of Internal Affairs, Aaron built on the foundation that was laid by previous vice presidents. He increased the amount of chapter president conference calls to help facilitate inter-chapter communication and foster brotherhood between the chapter presidents, while also allowing them a space where they could share ideas. He did the same with the chapter ombudsmen and hosted a call each semester. In addition to the calls, Aaron was able to get 100% collection rates on all rosters and reports he oversaw, as well as 100% on time. Furthermore, he was able to combine all the chapter report data into an easily searchable database, saving the council hours of time sifting through data used to support the council’s decision-making process regarding how to best support its members. During his term as National Vice President of Internal Affairs Aaron created and organized The Inaugural National Day of Service. This event proved to be a huge success for the council and eventually evolved into the larger celebration of Founder's Week the next year.

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While serving in his first term as the National Vice President of Internal Affairs, Aaron was employed full time, co-stewarding the 84th National Convention in Indianapolis, IN, and all while enrolled in a master’s program full time. At the 84th National Convention, Aaron was able to achieve record attendance, a special feat given that Indianapolis had never held a National Convention or had a local chapter. Aaron was a big advocate for bringing the first ever Phired Up seminar sponsored by the National Council. This led to a sizable increase in our overall chapter growth over the next year due to the useful information. Moreover, At the 84th National Convention, Aaron’s now wife, Maureen Sullivan was selected as ADG National Sweetheart. In May 2015, Aaron graduated from the Catholic University of America earning a Master of Arts in International Affairs.

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At the 85th National Convention, Maureen Sullivan was once again selected as ADG National Sweetheart, making her the first two-time national sweetheart of ADG. After the 85th National Convention in Covington, KY, Aaron was appointed as an Expansion Director on the Board of Directors of the National Council. Additionally, he remained as the Ombudsmen for Alpha Delta Chapter. As an Expansion Director, Aaron was integral in the creation and foundation of our Alpha Lambda Chapter at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY. This meant many eight-hourlong drives to upstate New York from Baltimore, MD to attend chapter meetings and events. Alpha Lambda Chapter was chartered as a new chapter at the 86th National Convention in St. Louis, MO. At that same convention, Aaron was awarded the Most Outstanding Chapter Ombudsman Award for his efforts with Alpha Delta Chapter.

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After the 86th National Convention in St. Louis, MO, Aaron was asked by the National Council to return to the position of National Vice President of Internal Affairs to finish out the term. During Aaron’s second term as National Vice President of Internal Affairs, he took on the immense task of reworking the chapter reporting protocols, and the chapter reports themselves to create a design that focused on data and the collection of that data. This proved to be a big success for the National Council because it allowed the board to accurately decide where best to allocate funds, and efforts to better the Fraternity. At the 87th National Convention in New Orleans, LA, Aaron was once again elected to the National Council, this time as the Vice President of External Affairs. Additionally, Aaron was elected as a co-steward for the 89thNational Convention in Las Vegas, NV, another first convention location for the Fraternity.

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As the Vice President of External Affairs, Aaron chose to focus on a different aspect of the position, the alumni. He created a brand-new ceremony that focuses on the transition, achievements, and contribution our active members make to the chapter and welcomes them into the larger alumni organization. Helping to further the narrative that “A Brother helped by a brother is like a city walled” is something that extends well past undergraduate years. He was able to successfully collect all the alumni association reports his first year of term while also establishing ties with alumni from our Omicron, Tau, and Nu Chapters.

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With Past National President Derrick Cabrera as the new president of ADGEF, Aaron was asked to serve on Board of Directors for the now titled Alpha Delta Gamma Foundation. As an appointed member to the Board of Directors for the Alpha Delta Gamma Foundation, Aaron was involved in some crucial alumni focused projects. He was able to be a part of the alumni outreach program that was successful in adding over 5,000 alumni into an easy-to-use database. The very same database which is used to send our own custom newsletter and correspondence, the Alphadelity, has further contributed to the overall growth of our alumni presence. In addition to contributing to the overall alumni growth and involvement, Aaron was involved with the outreach efforts of the Foundation and the active members to promote the Foundation and the importance of the organization and how they support Alpha Delta Gamma.

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Leading up to the 88th National Convention in Milwaukee, WI, Aaron was able to utilize relationships he made at the FGA Symposium during the NIC General Meetings, to negotiate and partner again with Phired Up to lead recruitment seminars at consecutive conventions in Milwaukee and Louisville.

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While helping grow our alumni network and improve the National Council's outreach program, Aaron also was integral, along with his Director of Risk Management, Adrien Vakerics, in writing Alpha Delta Gamma’s updated National Risk Management policy which exceeds the standards required by the NIC. To improve the expansion efforts of Alpha Delta Gamma, Aaron redeveloped the national expansion program and documents which had not been updated since 2006, a greatly needed update. Additionally, he established an entirely new expansion strategy which identifies target schools for Alpha Delta Gamma to pursue for expansion based on what demographics work best for our organization. Aaron created and established the Council's Chapter Evaluation document which outlines the standards of Alpha Delta Gamma Chapters, the first of its kind for Alpha Delta Gamma. During the 2020 year of his term, he was able to have the council attend and send active members to this year’s AFLV Conference in Indianapolis, IN.

In March 2020 Covid reared its ugly head and threw the world into chaos. This led to ADG having to host its first ever virtual National Convention. Thankfully and after some tough negotiations Aaron was able to move the Las Vegas National Convention to 2023 while keeping almost our entire current contract in place with Flamingo Las Vegas. The 89th National Convention, our first and only virtual National Convention, shattered records for most attended National Convention with eighteen chapters represented. At our first ever virtual National Convention Aaron Dwyer was elected the 61st National President, the only National President to be elected virtually. With his election, he became only the 3rd president to be married to a National Sweetheart of ADG, Maureen Sullivan. 

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Aaron’s first act as president was to officially swear in Father Radloff as our National Moderator, a position he held under Andrew’s term but had not been officially sworn into yet. He didn’t stop with Moderator, Aaron also created eight ad hoc positions for the Board of Directors and expanded the expansion committee to four expansion chairs each focused on geographiclocation, West Coast, Southeast, Midwest, and Northeast. The ad hoc positions were Director of Spiritual Activities, Mental Health Awareness Chair, Spiritual Retreat Chair, National Council Active Intern, Director of Inter-Chapter Communications, Director of Fundraising, and two Directors of Collections. These new ad hoc positions were part of Aaron’s plan to keep members active and engaged during Covid. 

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Due to Covid, every chapter was forced to go completely virtual for the 2020-2021 academic year. However, Aaron was able to turn this into a strength for ADG. During this virtual time, ADG was still able to maintain growth with all her chapters while also avoiding having a single mass break out event at any of our chapters. This was all due to the hard work Adrien Vakerics and his Risk Management Director, Anthony Doung, created and put into practice. Due to Covid it was decided that there would be no chapter visits for the 2020-2021 academic year. Instead, Aaron started a policy where the council would meet virtually and monthly with each chapter and their school admin to keep a finger on the pulse and to continue to maintain our relationships during this virtual period. Due to Covid, finances were very tight, so Aaron tasked Anthony to find a solution to help our members. Anthony Medellin and his financial wizardry did not disappoint, the National Council was able to lower the national dues to $75 a member during the virtual period of Covid while maintaining a national collection rate above 90% for the first time. 

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This virtual period of ADG did include virtual events held every week for our chapters by nationals, including a very well attended virtual U-Night celebration that went for hours and included a call-a-thon event to see who could call the greatest number of brothers. In addition to those virtual events the council also organized and initiated a mental health initiative that Cody Bauer created from the ground up, and an awesome month-long event with Movember that Matthew Bergman put together for the month of November 2020. At the end of 2020, ADG received news that ChapterSpot, our CRM provider at the time, would be cutting their service as they pursue larger organizations. This led to us developing a new national website. Kevin Magee created and presented the new website to the council for roll out after convention. 

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The 90th National Convention was held in Louisville KY at The Brown Hotel. It was well attended considering the Covid event ban had just been lifted a few weeks prior. The 2021-2022 academic year was another good year for ADG. ADG was able to move back to in person events for most campuses. However, ADG continued with virtual events offered by the National Council as this was still wanted by the National Body. Zeta Chapter chaired the efforts to rebrand ADG, giving the fraternity the logo and seal used today. In November 2021, Robert Breneman stepped down from the National Council. Anthony Medellin was appointed as our new ExecutiveVice President and Matt Caraway was appointed to serve as our new Vice President of Finance. Under Anthony’s leadership, the council became more productive, and meetings became shorter. Under Matt Caraway’s leadership we were able to again maintain an above 90% collection rate by collecting 100% of owed dues for the year 2021-2022. Matt Caraway also chose to focus on software protection for ADG as one of his main goals for his position. 

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As ADG was able to start having in-person events again, chapter visits did resume although the council maintained their monthly meetings with the chapters and the schools. The council had Mid-Year in Chicago and National Conference at Alpha Kappa Chapter in Indianapolis. Leading up to the 91st National Convention the National Council decided to withdrawal a small amount from the sinking fund to pay for hotel rooms at the convention for the actives, which has been repeated since. At the 91st National Convention the National Council presented on Greek Track ADG’s current CRM system found by Cody Bauer and organized and setup by AnthonyMedellin. The council also presented on the overhaul of Vice President of Internal Affair’sposition, including updates to the Ombudsman program. At the end of the 91st National Convention Anthony Medellin would be elected the 62nd National President of ADG. Just one month later at the NIC Annual Meeting of Members, Aaron Dwyer was elected to the Governing Council of the NIC representing the FGA membership. Shortly after, ADGF President Derrick Cabrera asked Aaron to serve as the Executive Vice President of the Foundation, where he still serves today. 

 

​In Aaron’s decade as an active brother on the national level, he has been able to attend fourteenconsecutive National Conventions, thirteen consecutive National Conferences, four ADGEF Retreats in Atlanta, seven FGA Symposium meetings at the NIC General Session, and has visited every chapter at least once. At these National events, he still demonstrates the values and lessons learned so long ago as a candidate at Kappa Chapter. 

 

Living Life One Dat at a Time:

Aaron currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with his wife, two-time Alpha Delta Gamma National Sweetheart, Maureen, his two sons, Andy and Daniel and his cat Zuri. He is currently employed at Canusa Paper & Packaging as an International Logistics Coordinator and is a Licensed Customs Broker. ​

 

The Meaning:

Alpha Delta Gamma means something different to every member, but to Aaron, ADG means love, family, fun, and faith. Over the last decade the fraternity has impacted every aspect of Aaron's life, he has laughed with his brothers, cried with his brothers, suffered with his brothers, and rejoiced with his brothers. Through all of that he was never alone, he always had his brothers by his side. The fraternity brought Aaron his first job, it introduced him to his wife Maureen, his best friend Matt Berkshire, it taught him important lessons about leading and being humble while doing so. The fraternity taught Aaron to live his life in part by following the 5 S's of ADG, Service, Scholastic, Social, School Spirit, and Spiritual. Aaron has proved that the 5 S's can be lived after college and hopes to share the 5 S's with every brother. The fraternity has given 1000-fold back to Aaron, but now it's time for Aaron to try and match his experience by giving back to ADG. Aaron wants to share those very same experiences with his brothers to ensure every member has the same, if not better, connection with ADG. For what is brotherhood if not to share that what is important to you with your brothers, to take an interest in one another's passions and loves?

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