As an accomplished housing professional and a dedicated volunteer leader, Ken Stoner has enjoyed a robust career, the effects of which are still being felt today. Stoner worked for five different institutions, but most of his time was at the University of Tennessee and the University of Kansas. After a dozen years at Tennessee, he became the director of student housing at Kansas for the next 21 years, where he helped lead residence education, physical plant and maintenance, business and fiscal management, and dining services. He retired from Kansas and returned to Tennessee as the director of housing and assistant vice chancellor for student affairs in 2006. Eventually, he was promoted to associate vice chancellor of student affairs before retiring in 2014.
In addition to his housing and volunteer work, he has contributed greatly to the profession by publishing more than 50 articles and chapters and was widely known as a professional consultant on a wide range of issues, including standards of operation and excellence in student housing. He was an advisor and ardent supporter of NACURH and editor of The Journal of College and University Student Housing. While president of ACUHO-I, Stoner added a multicultural position to the Executive Board to ensure future representation, and he led efforts to reach out to Historically Black Colleges and Universities to solicit their membership in ACUHO-I. He also finalized the transition process that founded the ACUHO-I Central Office and secured professional support for the Association. For all these accomplishments and more, Stoner was inducted into the ACUHO-I Parthenon Society in 2011.
Shannon Staten, in more than 40 years of working in higher education, has repeatedly demonstrated the spirit, knowledge, and leadership epitomized by this award’s namesake. She is currently the Florida State University executive director for university housing, after serving as director for housing at the University of Louisville. During this time, she has amassed a rich understanding of the inner workings of residential life, facility management, finance, staff development, and public-private partnerships. In service to the profession, Staten has been the facilities and physical environment director on the ACUHO-I Executive Board and served five years on the ACUHO-I Foundation Trustees Board, including time as the chair. She has also served on 16 different workgroups, including the Credentialing Task Force and the Chief Housing Officers Institute planning committee, as well as being a faculty member for the Professional Standards Institute and the James C. Grimm National Housing Training Institute. Finally, she has shared her knowledge through more than 50 unique presentations and 13 manuscripts including chapters in Creating Sustainable Careers in Student Affairs, New Directions for Student Services, and the ACUHO-I Campus Housing Management book series.
Matthew Nelson’s career has literally spanned the globe, as more than half of his time in housing and student affairs has been spent working outside the United States. These positions in the Caribbean and most recently as the head of residence life for the Qatar Foundation have empowered him to gain expertise in translating student affairs and the student housing industry into a global context. Along with overseeing all aspects of the student experience for residents from eight higher education institutions, he is the higher education division liaison for university student affairs and oversees the student and alumni employment program. A member of the James C. Grimm NHTI class of 2005 and a 2015 graduate of the ACUHO-I Professional Standards Institute, he has spent the past five years as an active contributor to advancing global perspectives. He has been an active participant in and leader of the Global Initiatives Network and served on the faculty for the inaugural Global Housing Training Institute in Australia. Last year he ended his term as the globalization director on the ACUHO-I Executive Board. In all these efforts he has helped identify and understand the needs of housing and accommodation professionals worldwide, expanding ACUHO-I's reach and increasing understanding of global housing issues to prioritize resources and support.
Aja Holmes has spent more than two decades in student affairs, leaving a lasting impact on each institution where she has worked and on each initiative she has supported. Currently the assistant dean of students and director of community living at the University of San Francisco, Holmes has also been an active member of ACUHO-I, WACUHO, NASPA, and ACPA, serving on several boards and committees. Much of her work has focused on helping others develop supervision skills as well as implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies. She has been a panelist for several institutes and workshops and a faculty member for both the ACUHO-I Mid-Level Managers Leadership Institute and the James C. Grimm National Housing Training Institute. She is part of a taskforce for The Placement Exchange that is exploring the future of recruiting, hiring, and onboarding staff. Most recently, she served as a mentor for the ACUHO-I Leadership Academy, offering support and advice for Black women housing professionals. Holmes is also a founding member and past editorial board member of the Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis. Her actions support her words: “I believe in the tenets of servant leadership and giving back to a field that has poured so much into me. I am excited to continue to give back as I continue to grow in this field.”
Amanda Iverson, currently the director of residential life at Union College in New York, has carried on the spirit of Judy Spain in her work, her service, and her life. For ACUHO-I she has served as the co-chair of the LGBTQIA+ Network and has been a presenter at many ACUHO-I events. Professionally, she has helped draft domestic partner policies for live-in staff to accommodate LGBTQ employees and their partners, driven policy changes around inclusive language and chosen/preferred names, created gender-inclusive forms for all housing processes, implemented a gender-inclusive housing community in a first-year residence hall, elevated her school’s Campus Pride Index score, and helped orchestrate campus-wide Pride events. In addition, as noted in her nomination, she has “worked tirelessly as the co-convener of the LGBTQ+ Committee.” In all of her efforts she has served visibly and openly, speaking freely about her identity, which, she notes, positions her “to be a role model for other LGBTQIA+ students, faculty, and staff across campus.”
At a time when the ACUHO-I Executive Board recommitted itself to a variety of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, Luis Inoa, the associate dean of the college for student living and wellness at Vassar College, was an invaluable resource and advocate. He was appointed to two ex-officio terms on the Executive Board, serving as the Pathways to Success Director in 2019 and the Leadership Academy Director in 2020. In these roles he facilitated 18 virtual monthly gatherings of mid-level professionals of color with invited BIPOC guests from a cross-section of professions. He also helped initiate several anti-racist initiatives by serving on various committees, network leadership teams, and task forces, including the Multi-Cultural Institute Planning Committee, the ACUHO-I DEI Statement workgroup, and the Anti-Racism Task Force Committee. In addition, while serving as the director of residential life at Vassar, he was the founding director of the campus’s Transitions Program, a comprehensive, four-year program for first-generation, low income, and/or undocumented students.
Joshua Brown, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, has immersed himself in research positioned at the intersection of public policy and organizational theory, examining how economic policies have incentivized colleges and universities with limited resources to pursue margins in new markets at the expense of their educational missions. Along with several articles and publications, including his current book project, Capitalizing on College, Brown has become known as an expert resource for media outlets. As he notes, “media publications are not lacking in their coverage of postsecondary amenities and luxuries. . . . But the story of university housing (and student affairs more broadly) is much more nuanced than the ‘arms wars’ that tend to dominate media headlines. I have adopted an approach of speaking to media about how campus housing is impacted by a larger trend of privatization and how market-centric trends have an impact on both student outcomes and equality.” In addition, Brown and his colleagues recently completed research that looked at a host of factors in three related studies, which was compiled into a whitepaper resource, “Equality and a Built Environment of Differences: Towards More Equitable Residential Life Experiences,” that college and university leaders can leverage to de-stratify their campuses.
“A campus housing professional is told, in the face of an emergency, to do two things: Contact the higher ranking on-duty staff and call the police. Although this might seem like a normal, natural, and good thing to do for a white housing staff member, it may be more of a challenge for a Black staff member to trust wholeheartedly that the police will be helpful and provide support and safety during an uncertain and potentially dangerous situation, especially when the person in trouble is another person of color.” Such is the premise of “A Thin Line,” the award-winning article written by Aramis Watson for the Talking Stick (July + August 2022). She had previously explored the topic in her dissertation, The Thin Black Line: How Black Housing Staff Make Meaning of Their Encounters with Campus Police. The award judges noted Watson’s thoughtful and well-researched approach to a timely and important topic. Along with writing and presenting on campus policing, Watson enjoys teaching social justice and is passionate about advocating for students in her role as a higher education administrator. She is currently the dean of residence life and student housing at Southern Methodist University and was previously the associate director of residence life at the University of Kansas.
As members continue to reshape and redefine what the resident assistant position means on their campus, Max Schuster, assistant professor of practice in the Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy at the University of Pittsburgh, and Rachel Stalker, currently a manager of recruitment programming at the University of Pittsburgh, provide much needed insightful knowledge in their work. Their manuscript, “Resident Assistants with Minoritized Identities: The Promise of Identity-Affirming Microclimates in Enhancing RA Experiences” in The Journal of College and University Student Housing (Vol. 49, No. 1, 2022), was praised by judges who said, “as the structure of the traditional RA position has been increasingly under scrutiny, this study identifies and addresses a serious gap in the literature. Furthermore, it delves deeper into undergraduate student experiences of the position, recognizing that identity can play a significant role. Presenting highly tangible and practical takeaways, this should be a must-read for those recruiting, training, and supervising RAs.”
In earning his Doctorate of Educational Leadership degree from Tarleton State University, Rob Engblom completed his dissertation, An Investigation of Student Spiritual Development by Residence Hall Directors in College Housing Departments. In the publication Engblom, now an associate director for resident learning at Baylor University, posited that, while there are methods that universities can implement to develop student spirituality, faculty are reluctant to assist in this development, leaving the task for student affairs personnel. With this in mind, he examined how residence hall directors perceive the importance of spiritual development, their preparedness to develop students spiritually, and what efforts they are making to develop spirituality in students. Results from his study pointed to the need for student affairs personnel to better understand the importance of spiritual development, for residence hall directors to engage in their own spiritual growth, for the housing profession to explore how different characteristics influence a hall director’s intersectionality with spiritual development, for student affairs master’s programs to do more to incorporate spiritual development education for future professionals, and for residence hall directors to know which programs and activities produce spiritual development in college students.
While serving as a graduate fellow and a living-learning community coordinator for The University of Iowa, Madison Schulte is accumulating knowledge and experience that will serve her well as she pursues her future career goals. She oversees four LLCs: First Generation, Political Matters, Sport and Recreation Management, and Young, Gifted, and Black. As part of her role, she coordinates and facilitates collaboration between hall coordinators, resident assistants, and staff and faculty campus partners. She has also served as a member of the RA recruitment and selection committee, a presenter during RA training sessions, and a facilitator of diversity, equity, and inclusion dialogue. Finally, she has been a strong advocate for assessment, implementing it into her work in many ways, gathering feedback from campus partners and hall coordinators to ensure that expectations were being met and areas of growth were identified. Additionally, she worked with colleagues to add assessment questions for students in identity-based LLCs to one of the curriculum components.
All the world is a stage for Ashley Unmacht and her student residents at the University of Arizona where she has served as a community director since 2020. Among her responsibilities overseeing a 370-bed hall is supervising 17 undergraduate students and one graduate assistant, adjudicating conduct hearings, and advising the hall council. Where her job is different from others, though, is that her community is dedicated to fine arts majors, meaning that the space is often filled with dancers, musicians, and performers displaying their talents. Unmacht has dedicated much of her work to being a “justice-doer” in a number of ways. Among several initiatives, she advocated for the inclusion of all-gender restrooms and communities in the residence halls. She has worked with a graduate assistant to examine the impact of a police presence for policy violations with Black students as well as addressing the retention of Black students at her institution. She also facilitates SafeZone and bystander intervention training, has presented on gender and Universal Design at ACUHO-I and regional housing conferences, instructs a gender-based violence course, and leads an LGBTQ affinity group for resident assistants.
Sasha Masoomi has earned a reputation on her campus and in the field as someone who demonstrates enthusiasm and thoroughness in her work. Currently an assistant director of residence life at Miami University in Ohio, she supervises a staff of 11 live-in professionals and assumes the leadership and coordination of professional and paraprofessional staff training and development. She is also the on-campus advisor to Miami’s NRHH chapter. She says she appreciates the opportunities her mid-level position affords and enjoys “helping to prepare students for the field, working with graduate students to apply their coursework to their assistantship, and helping new professionals find a voice in their first professional role. I have put a lot of time and energy into spaces where I can help others prepare for their next steps; this includes volunteering with The Placement Exchange, ACUHO-I, and NASPA career coaching roles.” Masoomi has been a STARS College faculty member and a member of the ACUHO-I Membership Committee and the ACUHO-I Foundation Annual Giving Committee. To help the profession at large, she has contributed several articles and presentations about reducing the stigma of mental illness and furthering the conversation about how those in student affairs can minimize the impact of secondary traumatic stress.
Even if a campus has not worked with Paul Wuennenberg directly on a construction or renovation project, odds are they will recognize his name and expertise from his numerous presentations and publications or his ongoing presence at ACUHO-I conference events. A principal architect for KWK Architects, Wuennenberg is a nationally recognized expert in the planning and design of student housing and dining facilities, with more than 20 years of student housing design experience. To date, his designs total nearly 40,000 beds. Throughout the course of his career, he has published numerous articles, participated in national webinars, written several books, and given many lectures on the topics of student housing and dining. In 2011, ACUHO-I honored him with the prestigious S. Earl Thompson Award.
There are few people in housing and residence life who will not recognize the names of these award recipients from their graduate school reference citations. Ernest Pascarella, the Mary Louise Petersen Professor of Higher Education at The University of lowa, and Patrick Terenzini, a distinguished professor and senior scientist in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at The Pennsylvania State University, have been instrumental in determining and illustrating the factors that affect student learning and development, persistence, and educational attainment. Their work has been used to support the efforts of an untold number of campus housing programs and practices. Along with pursuing their own work, they have also been supporters of higher education research in general. Pascarella is a consulting editor for the Journal of Higher Education and has been on the editorial boards of The Review of Higher Education and the Journal of College Student Development, receiving a number of awards from national associations for his research. Terenzini has published more than 100 articles in refereed journals and made more than 170 presentations at scholarly and professional conferences. He has been a consulting editor for Research in Higher Education for more than 25 years, served as editor-in-chief of New Directions for Institutional Research for more than a decade, and has been an associate editor of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research.