Eric Plummer ’10: ‘Leave an impact wherever you go’
For the Alumni Council treasurer, interviewing students has been a gateway into other volunteering opportunities
Photo by Andrea Kane
Eric Plummer ’10 hadn’t planned to interview any Princeton applicants as an alumni volunteer this fall. His work managing a big bank’s loan portfolio risk keeps him busy, not to mention coaching youth sports, time with his family and his new role as treasurer of the University’s Alumni Council. But Plummer couldn’t pass up the chance to meet two local high-school students from his own neighborhood in Plainfield, N.J.
“I couldn’t say no to meeting two great kids from my city,” he said. “My first toe in as an alumni volunteer was doing interviews. I just loved it.”
So, on two sunny afternoons in November, he walked the familiar tree-lined streets of the town where both he and his father (Eric Plummer Sr. ’85) grew up. Down Liberty Street two blocks from his house, he had an applicant conversation at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, a 19th-century red-and-black-brick community landmark. For another interview, Plummer walked past City Hall to Queen City Roasters for coffee with another applicant.
On his walks home after those hours discussing the Princeton experience with the young applicants, crunching leaves as dusk fell in the New Jersey autumn, Plummer had time to think about his own Princeton days and be thankful.
“It’s always awesome to meet the next generation of leaders,” he said. “And I always end it with, ‘Whether you go to this school or not, I’m a real human who lives in your town who would love to be helpful.’ I had a kid [I had interviewed] recognize me and say ‘Hey, Eric, how are you doing?’ He had just finished med school. Doing these interviews can be addicting. Because you’re telling the story of Princeton to people, you’re reminiscing on your own experience, and it becomes this natural gateway into other volunteer opportunities.”
Plummer is from a Princeton Athletics family, and through his volunteer leadership he is dedicated to bringing more people into the University’s extended family. His uncle, Roderick Plummer ’72, was Princeton’s first Black quarterback. Eric remembers attending Association of Black Princeton Alumni (ABPA) Reunions cookouts with his dad, who was a decathlete and javelin thrower. Eric himself was a recruited athlete and became a first-team All-Ivy shot putter. As an undergraduate, he met his wife, Cecily King ’10.
“Princeton created for me a life that I would not have imagined, and I would love to pay that forward,” he said. “I’ve been around this place since as long as I can remember, fortunate enough to go to school here. And I think for me, you don’t just go somewhere. You try to leave an impact wherever you go. I want to continue to create a space in which people like me feel welcome.”
Plummer graduated with an economics degree, and work opportunities took him to other parts of the country. Wherever he landed, he tried to interview student applicants to Princeton. It really did become a gateway to more.
“I had a buddy who said, ”Hey, the Association of Black Princeton Alumni is looking for board members.“ That led him to be an APBA board member, then treasurer. Before long he was ABPA vice president, on the steering committee for the 2019 ”Thrive“ conference, then ABPA president, putting him on the Alumni Council Executive Committee. He became the Alumni Council’s assistant treasurer in 2023, and now treasurer. In addition, he serves as chair of the Princeton U-Store board.
”I find ways to balance it with work,“ he said. ”Some weeks, it’s nothing. Some weeks, it’s five to 10 hours. My wife being an alum, she kind of gets it.“
While he has brought his financial skills to the volunteer work, his work for Princeton has helped build muscles that have aided his career.
”Frankly, volunteering gave me my first management experience,“ Plummer said. ”Before I was an actual manager, I was leading folks as a treasurer of the ABPA. I started to be able to take things from volunteer life, things from work life, and intertwine them. I think volunteering can be really powerful, especially earlier in your career. You get to learn for free. You build community and coalition, you learn how to motivate people. And it’s satisfying because you can often see your direct impact in a short window of time.“
As treasurer of the Alumni Council, Plummer is an officer whose purview extends beyond managing the balance sheet. He’s part of the strategic team. Ryan Ruskin ’90, president of the Alumni Association and chair of the Alumni Council, has introduced a leadership theme for the next two years: ”Our Princeton. Our time.“ Both pieces of the motto resonate for Plummer.
”You’re kind of shown early on that this is yours, right? Treat it as an owner, not as a renter,“ he said. ”You have an ownership stake, and you want to see this thing continue to thrive. Especially in a time with so much tumultuousness in the world of higher education. People not leaning in right now is, in some ways, like the beginning of a death sentence. ‘Our Princeton. Our time’ is important because if we don’t step up in this moment, there might be nothing to own when this is all over. When somebody needs you most, that’s when showing up tends to make all the difference.“
The big project he’ll pursue during his term as treasurer is making the most of the Alumni Association’s 200th anniversary.
”Very rarely do we get special moments like this, where there’s energy and opportunity to really do something special,“ he said. ”For me, that means making sure there are funds available and making the best use of them. Can we engage people who haven’t been involved? Are more people updating their information on the new TigerNet? The value of what we’re trying to do isn’t focused on raising funds; it’s focused on getting people connected to each other in a meaningful way.
“It’s about creating those collision points that matter. You never quite know what connection will change the world or change Princeton forever.”
