The National Apartment Association Education Institute (NAAEI) has created a new scholarship program for apartment industry employees who are military veterans as its way of honoring WinnResidential President William W. Wollinger, SHCM, CAPS, a man who has played a key role in shaping the institute and the field of apartment industry education and career promotion.  

The William W. Wollinger Leadership Scholarship covers tuition and travel to the NAAEI Leadership Experience: Powered by Dale Carnegie, which is a two-day course that teaches mid-level managers how to successfully lead, inspire and motivate. The scholarship also covers travel costs for the recipient to meet in person with Wollinger for a mentoring session. 

The scholarship program is only open to apartment industry employees who—like Wollinger--are military veterans. Before joining the apartment industry, Wollinger served in the U.S. Army as a medical evacuation pilot and flew more than 2,000 combat missions in Vietnam.

“Bill has a passion for education, and he understands the importance of developing programs and initiatives to increase the pool of potential employees for our industry,” said National Apartment Association Chairman of the Board Alexandra Jackiw, CAPS, CPM. “As a military veteran himself, he is passionate about helping our industry reach out to military veterans to let them know about the types of careers our industry has to offer them as they make the sometimes-difficult transition back to civilian life.” 

Wollinger has been a strong supporter of apartment career development. He has been instrumental in shaping NAAEI and its programs–two times serving as president of the institute and once as vice president—since its founding in 2005. He guided NAAEI as it developed apartment industry skill standards for leasing, maintenance and management and used those standards to rewrite all of its designation programs. In 2011, NAAEI recognized Wollinger for his work with its Apartment Career and Education (ACE) Award.

“Bill is an amazing volunteer leader, and someone we would like to clone,” said NAAEI Executive Vice President Maureen Lambe. “The William W. Wollinger Leadership Scholarship will hopefully be the next best thing to cloning him in order to develop highly engaged industry leaders!”

The William W. Wollinger Leadership Scholarship will be presented annually. If interested in donating to the William W. Wollinger Leadership Scholarship fund, please contact Barbara Wolf at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (703) 797-0613.