1. What is your current role/title?
I serve as the Executive Director of Strategy and Operations within the Undergraduate College at National Louis University.
2. Where did you earn your degrees and what did you study?
I have earned a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Social Work (MSW) from Washington University in St. Louis. I hold a B.A. in English and Sociology from DePaul University.
During my freshman year at DePaul University, while I received Pell and state aid and took out loans to help with the cost of attendance, I still struggled with the cost of a private university education and living expenses. The full weight of this financial burden wasn’t realized until I began to receive my tuition bills as they mounted up over fall and winter terms. By spring term of my first year, I had decided to leave and transfer to a public university the next fall, offering a more affordable option. At the end of the term, I made an appointment with my professor/faculty advisor in the English department, to inform her I was transferring due to financial constraints. Several weeks later, after the term had ended, I received a notice from DePaul that I had been awarded a grant from the institution that provided additional funding for tuition expenses. Unbeknownst to me, my professor had advocated on my behalf for this grant, which is the reason that I ended up persisting and was able to graduate from DePaul. This experience continues to motivate me each day to be an advocate for students facing similar financial challenges in affording a college education.
4. What excites you about equity work at your institution?
There are so many things! When I first came to NLU, I was drawn to the Undergraduate College’s mission is to drive equity in bachelor’s degree attainment. This means that the equity work is not just another initiative, but it is central to how we operate and serve students. As we have grown in students, faculty, and staff, I am excited each day to collaborate with, be challenged by, and learn from colleagues who are committed to this work and their own personal journey. While I am excited by how much our College has accomplished and the individual success stories of our students, I am also motivated by our commitment to continuous improvement and challenging the policies, processes, and mindsets that contribute to inequity as we work towards justice on behalf of our students.
As a white woman in a leadership role at an institution that is serving predominately Latinx and Black students, I strive to continue my own learning and challenge my own biases as I engage in everyday practices. Through my role, I have had the opportunity to lead and participate on the Core Team that developed our Institution’s Equity Plan, incorporating student, staff, and faulty voice as we developed the plan. Another area I am passionate about in my role is developing the capacity and culture in the College to use data through an equity-minded approach to drive action. Equity-minded data use by leadership, faculty, and staff has resulted in the examination of policies, curriculum and instructional practices that may be contributing to disparate outcomes and influenced the implementation of new or revised practices to increase equity across our college.