In the earliest days of his campus housing career, Vennie Gore admired James Grimm, this award’s namesake, as a servant leader who was worthy of modeling a career after. Now, as the senior vice president for student life and engagement at Michigan State University, Gore has established himself as a model professional and Association leader in his own right. A mainstay at ACUHO-I events, Gore has been the host chair for the ACUHO-I annual conference and a faculty member for the James C. Grimm National Housing Training Institute, the South Africa Housing Training Institute, and the Senior Housing Officer Training Institute. He served in the presidential track for the ACUHO-I Executive Board from 2010 to 2013 and was president of NWACUHO.
Professionally, Gore has established a reputation as a strategic and pragmatic thinker as well as a valuable mentor. He draws on those skills by participating in several university housing review committees, acting as co-chair of the Michigan State strategic plan, and helping expand the campus’s multicultural center, student support programs, and on-campus mental health services. Along with administering housing and dining programs for more than 17,000 students, he oversees other auxiliary units, including those that address diversity, student development, licensing, digital strategies, assessments, health and safety, and more. Previously Gore worked at the University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, and University of Illinois.
Jason Lynch has been interested in the subjects of trauma-informed leadership and workplace well-being since his earliest days as a housing practitioner. His work in these areas has been the foundation for his work as an assistant professor of higher education in the Department of Counseling, Family Therapy, and Higher Education at Appalachian State University. That focus on trauma-informed leadership, trauma-informed pedagogy, and organizational trauma has gained even more attention and importance in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on campus housing staff.
Lynch has been a regular reviewer and contributor to The Journal of College and University Student Housing, including being recognized with the 2020 Betty L. Harrah Journal Manuscript of the Year Award. Additionally, he was awarded an ACUHO-I Foundation Grant to study the impact of living on campus for students with a history of trauma exposure at historically Black colleges and universities. He has also translated theory into practice by offering training and consulting for campuses, speaking on secondary trauma for numerous webinars and symposia, and serving as a leader for the ACUHO-I Future of the Profession initiative. His scholarly contributions, which include empirical research, book chapters, and engagement with practitioner outlets, have generated knowledge and advocated for actionable strategies to create supportive and resilient residential educational environments. Through his work, he has highlighted previously underexplored aspects of professionals’ well-being, workplace dynamics, and community mental health.
Individuality and uniqueness. These are two qualities that authors Caitlyn Chaparro, Alexander James, and Erin Mayo ask readers to consider putting into practice in their efforts to intentionally reshape their mindset when working with students with disabilities. They stress that no two people are alike and that word choice and mindset matter when interacting with students. They crystallize this viewpoint in their article “A Deeper Understanding of Accessibility” in the Talking Stick (Vol. 40, No. 6, 2023). “Ultimately, each student's journey is unique, and the resources that they need to be successful will be individualized to them. In that regard, the most successful training about disability inclusion does not provide staff with a script or a blueprint, but rather instills a mindset and an approach. . . . In the case of disability, one strategy is to be mindful of how an individual with a disability refers to themselves and then try to echo the same language.” Award judges noted that it was this person-first approach to disability training that made the article such a valuable resource and, hopefully, an inspiration to housing departments. Chaparro is the senior residence life coordinator and James is an assistant director, both at Penn State University. Mayo is currently the assistant director of student accessibility services at the College of the Holy Cross.
While reasons for students requesting room changes have been a part of campus housing for ages, not until this article was published had the roles of residence hall architecture, roommate similarity, and academic performance been added as factors to note in this equation. In their article “The Anatomy of Room Change: Architecture, Academic Performance, and Differences in Race and Socioeconomic Status,” published in The Journal of College and University Student Housing (Vol. 49, No. 2, 2023), the authors made it clear that students look for an environment that helps them achieve success both academically and socially. Furthermore, the policies and the programming that help shape these environments are vitally important. As the authors conclude, “The best residential life experiences will be driven by creative and bold residence life administrators and practitioners who design and develop opportunities for student autonomy, increase students’ multicultural experiences, and collaborate with higher education scholars in optimizing residential life for all students.” Judges noted that the article covers “a topic that has not been researched and one that has very real practical implications for housing professionals.”
Currently, Fred Volk is a professor and the director of research for the School of Behavioral Sciences at Liberty University. Joshua Brown is a fellow in residence at the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford and a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture while also serving as an instructor of education leadership, foundations, and policy at the University of Virginia. Daniel Gibson is a graduate assistant in the School of Behavioral Sciences at Liberty University. Joseph Kush is a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Speaking to issues of the times, Mike Schilling’s doctoral dissertation explores the crisis response work required of campus housing residence directors. His work, part of the process to earn his Doctor of Philosophy in Higher Education degree from the University of Arizona, explores how entry-level residence directors have been tasked to oversee and implement institutions’ initial crisis response even while facing competing institutional pressures and stress on their internal resources.
Schilling, the associate director for residence life and residential conduct at the University of Colorado, Denver, indicated that there is little available literature that reveals how resident directors navigate crisis response work. His ethnographic study showed that resident directors mostly make meaning through interactions with student resident assistants, campus and external partners, peers, and managers within a locally managed yet professional position. Beyond giving further voice to their experiences, the dissertation provides insights into and resulting suggestions on how institutions can better train, supervise, and support entry-level housing professionals in their crisis responses and how departments and student affairs leaders can better structure and collaborate in on-call work. Among the examples he identified were focusing on individual support mechanisms, monitoring and improving directors’ relationships with all offices involved in crisis response, and incorporating the concepts of mental schema and post-work recovery into on-call structures.
Pieter Kloppers has been one of the leading advocates for ACUHO-I’s international reach and an enthusiastic champion of the ACUHO-I Southern Africa Chapter. Currently the director for the Centre for Student Communities at Stellenbosch University, the former law faculty member became involved in the residential life of students in 1996 when he started as a residence head of a co-ed residence hall. Kloppers connected with ACUHO-I when he was part of its Globalization Taskforce in 2007. He later was part of the committee that led to the creation of ACUHO-I SAC and has remained deeply involved in its leadership and programming, including time as the co-director of the Student Housing Training Institute. He is a regular presenter at various ACUHO-I events and a mainstay on study tours.
Kloppers’ work is ongoing, as he is currently working to design and implement an accreditation and grading tool for university and private accommodation in collaboration with the South Africa Department of Higher Education and Training, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, private suppliers of student housing, and the International Finance Corporation. Finally, he has been the connecting point that has brought together numerous housing professionals from around the world and introduced them to ACUHO-I events, research, and resources.
Paige Hicks, the director of residence life at The University of Chicago, has repeatedly demonstrated her commitment to supporting others and creating welcoming environments. As the chair of the ACUHO-I Multicultural Institute and Symposium, a past chair of the ACUHO-I Womxn in Housing Network, and a mentor for the ACUHO-I Leadership Academy, she advocated for opportunities and resources to assist her colleagues, champion women throughout the profession, and help them utilize their natural gifts and talents. She has presented at many ACUHO-I events, offering sessions that explore research and the lived experiences of women in the workplace, and shares strategies for supporting mid-level professional women in housing departments. Finally, she has participated in panels for ACUHO-I's Womxn in Housing Network and ACUHO-I's Black Professionals Network to speak about the intersection of being a Black woman in housing and to share strategies for care, support, and resilience.
In addition to her work with ACUHO-I, she has been recognized for co-creating a women in housing support group at The University of Texas at Austin. As part of this effort, each week during Women's History Month, women within the organization review literature and research and discuss best practices for supporting each other in the workplace. Hicks utilized tools from past events, including resources from the ACUHO-I Leadership Academy, to cultivate a meaningful and intentional engagement experience for women to learn, reflect, and share.
Kenny Mauk, the director for operations and outreach at the University of Houston, was told early on in his career by a mentor to “seize opportunities to see life through other people’s lives. It’s even better than walking in their shoes.” This message helped inspire him to contribute to the advancement and advocacy of marginalized people, and specifically the LGBTQ+ community, throughout his 30-year career. He has repeatedly contributed to speaker bureaus representing LGBTQ+ staff; presented programs at university, regional, and national conferences; and most recently served on the board of directors for the LGBTQ+ Resource Center at the University of Houston. He was awarded the University of Houston Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services Diversity Award in 2017 for his work building an environment of inclusivity and a culture of respect.
Mauk points to his earliest involvement with ACUHO-I growing out of connections he made with members at an LGBTQ+ conference social. That started him on a path of involvement that would lead him to serve as chair of the Marketing Committee and, shortly after, help lead the first three ACUHO-I Business Operations Conferences. He has been a faculty member for the James C. Grimm National Housing Training Institute, served on the ACUHO-I Regional Affiliations Task Force, and held the role of Business Practices and Enhancements Director on the ACUHO-I Executive Board.
Yettieve Marquez-Santana, director of residential education at Vassar College, began her active involvement with ACUHO-I about 10 years ago when she assumed a leadership position with the Professionals of Color Network and, as she states, found her professional home. Later, she would serve on the ACUHO-I Executive Board as the Inclusion and Equity Director and continued demonstrating her commitment to these issues. While on the Board, she led a task force to put ACUHO-I’s DEI statement into action, convening a group of colleagues to dissect each DEI value and make recommendations for the Board, volunteer leaders, and ACUHO-I staff to increase accountability.
Marquez-Santana has also been a strong advocate for issues of inclusion and equity in her work. She currently is part of the Transitions Mentorship Program, which pairs mentors with first-generation students of color. While on staff at New York University, she was a member of the Residential Life & Housing Committee for Diversity and Inclusion and a leader of its Staff of Color (SOC) Network, as well as an active member of the Administrators of Color Network, where she engaged in campus-wide initiatives for professionals of color within the division of student affairs. Finally, she is a regular presenter in campus trainings as well as regional and national conferences on topics such as microaggressions, multicultural competence, diversity audits, and interviewing professionals of color.
Sophia Park is a graduate hall director at James Madison University pursuing a Master’s degree in college student personnel administration. She has established herself on campus with a series of educational and engaging programs for students and resident assistants of the two halls she oversees. Additionally, she has co-taught a class required of all first-year RAs that explains interpersonal relations and provides further training on the RA role. She has also helped develop and facilitate the 30+30 Awareness to Action Inclusive Future Tour, a program for members of the JMU community to present on activities that speak to racial equity, climate studies, or other general diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging activities. She is also a member of the Asian Student Union.
Park serves as the president of the James Madison Graduate Student Association. In this role, she awards professional development grants, collaborates on workshops with the career center, organizes social and networking activities, and is the Library Student Forum graduate representative. Beyond her campus, Park has been part of the programming and marketing planning committee for the 2023 Virginia Student Services Conference. There she helped review submissions, designed the program and conference evaluation surveys, and organized networking activities for attendees.
Justin Sanchez, a community director at Mississippi State University, has leveraged his passion for student development and training, advising, and student success into opportunities to advise student organizations, create and facilitate student staff training programs, and positively enhance student staff through committee and task force work. On his campus, he has, among other projects, collaborated on the annual Big Dawgs Leadership Summit for student leaders, helped update the departmental standard operating procedures, and reviewed the residential curriculum and engagement model. He revamped the campus student leadership organizations by implementing a Student Leadership Committee where all advisors and presidents could collaborate to improve consistency and increase the visibility of their work.
Sanchez and other staff launched a student leadership retreat where representatives of three student organizations meet and share suggestions for improvements. That work has led to enhanced constitutions to ensure greater consistency as well as providing structure to processes and transition reports so that organizations would allow incoming boards enough time and material to ensure that they felt confident in their roles for the upcoming year.
Through her advocacy work on campus and her engagement with professional associations, Allee Garry, the apartment operations coordinator at Oregon State University, has demonstrated her commitment to and passion for to her chosen field, colleagues, and students. Garry has presented multiple times on accessibility and universal design to broaden perspectives on unintentional exclusions from communal spaces. She has addressed accessibility gaps within her campus’s housing communities by collaborating with stakeholders to implement measures such as automatic doors, braille on appliances, and assistive technology to enhance inclusivity. Additionally, she helped lead a comprehensive re-evaluation of Oregon State’s conference services processes. To meet the needs of diverse student and guest populations, she proposed increased accessibility measures, culturally sensitive practices, cultural competence training for conference staff, and diverse programming options that would make campus events truly welcoming.
Garry is an active participant in ACUHO-I and NWACUHO. As the chair of the Local Arrangements Committee for the 2023 ACUHO-I Annual Conference, her meticulous planning and coordination helped create a vibrant and welcoming atmosphere. Similarly, as the chair of the ACUHO-I LGBTQ+ Network, she demonstrated a commitment to inclusivity and diversity within the campus housing community and created a supportive environment for LGBTQ individuals. Finally, as part of the Local Arrangements Committee for the NWACUHO 2024 Annual Conference, she has shown her continued commitment to the development and growth of the campus housing profession on a broader scale.
Throughout his career, Jason Taylor has advised well more than 200 colleges and universities on their student housing planning, financing, and feasibility. This work has led to more than $4.5 billion in development and has impacted the experience of an untold number of students.
Recently named as the managing partner for public-private partnerships at The Annex Group, Taylor has also been the vice president of public-private partnerships for American Campus Communities where his responsibilities included identifying future university partners and development opportunities and assisting university leaders in the evaluation of facility financing and delivery options. He has also worked at Greystar, and during his 12 years with The Scion Group, he saw the company grow from six employees to more than 1,800.
During all this, Taylor has made time to contribute to ACUHO-I in various ways. He has served as a trustee of the ACUHO-I Foundation as well as providing his expertise as a frequent panelist and presenter on student housing development and public-private partnerships.
Kathleen Kerr has left a dramatic imprint on the campus housing and residence life profession by helping to develop the curricular approach. This model has been adopted and used at institutions around the world to advance college student learning outside the classroom. She has offered numerous presentations and is a published author on the topic, as well as on strategic planning, organizational development, and group dynamics.
Kerr currently serves as the vice president for student affairs at the State University of New York at Oswego. Before that, though, she spent more than three decades working at the University of Delaware in several positions culminating as the associate vice president for student life with a secondary appointment as an assistant professor. It was there that she began work on the curricular approach.