New Assignment: Stanton Joins Alumni Relations Team
Written by Doug Goodnough
For David Stanton, ’98, it all comes back to Hillsdale College. As a student, he adopted the Hillsdale community as a second family and even met his future wife on campus. Hillsdale also prepared him for a successful career as an educator and administrator. When he decided to enlist in the U.S. Navy, a Hillsdale event was the tipping point for that decision.
In January of 2025, Stanton literally came back to Hillsdale College, this time as a member of the staff. He began his new role as the senior director of Alumni Relations and is ready to serve the College in his new capacity.
“It was always in the backs of our minds,” said Stanton and his wife, Jodie (Autry), ’98, of someday returning to work and live in Hillsdale. “Every now and then, it would come to the forefront, wondering if we will ever get back to Hillsdale. We just had this sense that somehow God was going to bring us back here.”
That sense was heightened last fall, when a position opened in the Alumni Office. Stanton, who was at the time the headmaster of Oakdale Academy, a private classical Christian school in suburban Detroit, said it began as a conversation: Should we leave the Detroit area and start a new life in Hillsdale?
“My wife and I had many discussions and prayer time during that process,” Stanton said. “We all love the College, we love the town, but are we really supposed to do this?”
Still unsure, he said some sage advice from his father-in-law provided the clarity that they needed to go forward with the job, the move, and answering God’s call in faith to come to Hillsdale.
In his role, Stanton will help run the day-to-day operations of the office, as well as direct and supervise areas like engagement, annual giving, and young alumni and student programs.
Stanton, who served on the Alumni Association Board and is currently a parent of a Hillsdale student (Christine, ’27), said orienting himself to the new role at the College has been a good process. And he is ready to apply his previous career experiences to his role.
“Teaching a United States history class doesn’t have a direct correlation to working here, except there are so many things that go back to the foundations I received here in my history classes,” Stanton said. “Those core principles that I learned here are still important to us as alumni. There’s something uniquely special that if you have a Hillsdale College diploma, you know certain principles were taught to us.”
Stanton taught in private and public schools for more than a decade. After earning advanced degrees from Central Michigan University (master’s) and Liberty University (Ed.S. and a doctorate in education), he served as headmaster of Oakdale Academy from the Hillsdale Academy model, for six years before returning to the College.
Stanton will also draw on his experience as Naval intelligence officer, where he spent time deployed in Afghanistan and Bahrain during military operations after 9/11.
“I distinctly remember being on campus on September 9, 2001, and connecting with a classmate,” Stanton said. “We were listening to Dr. Stephen Ambrose, who wrote very famous World War II books, and he was talking about D-Day. Tom Brokaw called that era The Greatest Generation, and someone asked Ambrose if this new generation would have to rise up and be able to equal what The Greatest Generation did. And he said, ‘Yes, I think every generation basically has a test.’”
That test came two days later when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the nation’s capital, leading to the War on Terror.
Stanton, who had already submitted paperwork to join the Navy, said Ambrose’s words and 9/11 cemented his decision to serve.
“This is just something that you have to do,” said Stanton, whose grandfathers served in World War II and his father in the Vietnam War. “This is a very distinct calling you can’t ignore.”
He enlisted in November 2001 and was eventually commissioned as an officer. As an intelligence specialist, he worked for the Office of Naval Intelligence, and in 2007 was deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he managed and assisted in the training of basic intelligence personnel for both the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police Force. Stanton retired with the rank of Commander in February 2023.
He said Hillsdale’s military history is quite evident around campus, including the presence of the Civil War monument at the heart of campus.
“I think the statue is representative of all that Hillsdale has done,” he said.
While a student at Hillsdale, Stanton endured the loss of his mother to cancer just days before his sophomore year. He said the response of the Hillsdale community—faculty, staff, and classmates—still resonates with him to this day.
“I could not have found a better community as I came back to school,” Stanton said of the Hillsdale outreach after his mother’s death. I’ll never forget when my French professor (Dr. Marie-Claire Morellec) said, ‘Whatever you need, we’ll be there.’ They just wrapped their arms around me and walked me through. They prayed for me, and it was exactly where I needed to be. They became a second family.”
A member of the Sigma Chi fraternity on campus, he has already reconnected with the Hillsdale chapter. Stanton said he, his wife, and their six children (ages 19 to 4) are in the process of moving to Hillsdale, hopefully by the summer.
Now he gets to walk by Central Hall every day, his favorite place campus. And he is ready to further the mission of Hillsdale College as part of the Alumni Relations team.
“We hope to continue to connect our alums with the mission and highlight all the great things that happen here on campus and in the College’s outreach programs,” Stanton said.
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s senior director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in February 2025