Steve Herndon has always approached his work for students and professional associations with an eye on improving the future. Previously at the University of Dayton and currently as the assistant vice president of student living at Syracuse University, he has built a reputation for thoughtful problem-solving and inspiring leadership. A proponent of curricular approaches to learning and development, learning organization design, and trauma stewardship, he has earned his colleagues’ respect. In addition, for groups like ACPA and ACUHO-I, he has been a faculty member, volunteer leader, mentor, and thought leader, garnering him several honors. Plus, he served as GLACUHO president until his work took him out of the region. His reach indeed has extended past his home campuses.
For all these reasons, Herndon was a logical choice to lead the ACUHO-I Future of the Profession initiative. In that role, he was the face, co-facilitator, co-designer, and advocate for this initiative, which touched all corners of ACUHO-I through its infusion into the strategic plan and the process of creating resources and programs to shape the work of the profession. He presented annually at conferences to spread the word on this project’s importance and applicability to the day-to-day work of housing professionals. And, if that was not enough, he most recently has been a mentor with the ACUHO-I Leadership Academy, working with a cohort member and contributing to a capstone project that integrates the Future of the Profession tenets into professional development plans and collective recommendations for advancing the profession for years to come.
Starting staff off on the right foot was the emphasis of this year’s best article recipient. In their article, “Aboveboard Onboarding: Successful Staff Onboarding Creates an Equitable Environment from Day One,” authors Em Camden Doolittle and Kawami Evans articulate the importance of onboarding staff with an inclusive and equitable process: “Organizations are now striving to take a proactive approach by using the onboarding process as a tool to move forward with equity rather than just as a reactive response to unfolding events or to what happened in the past. This means ensuring that the onboarding process is intentional, focused, and timely.”
One judge noted that the article “brilliantly emphasizes the significance of a comprehensive and inclusive onboarding process. The thoughtful questions posed in the article – such as considering who new staff meets in their earliest days and the opportunities given to reflect on what they have learned – prompt meaningful reflection and highlight the depth of your analysis.”
Doolittle is a basic needs manager for student housing and dining services and vice-chair of the Chancellor’s Committee for LGBTQIA+ Communities at the University of California, Davis. Evans is the executive director of inclusion, culture, and belonging in student housing and dining services and the diversity, equity, and inclusion strategist for the Division of Student Affairs at the University of California, Davis.
It is generally accepted that resident assistants have an integral role in creating positive experiences for other residents. In their manuscript, “Measuring the Leadership Effectiveness of Resident Assistants,” published in The Journal of College and University Student Housing, authors Nicholas Blair (a senior technology consultant with Credera) and Rishi Sriram (an associate professor at Baylor University) combined their knowledge of technology and student development theory to create an instrument that measures an RA’s effectiveness. Creatively using a well-known leadership theory (Bolman and Deal’s four frames of leadership), the authors developed a robust study to determine the validity of an instrument evaluating resident assistant performance. For years, housing and residence life educators have struggled with how to effectively evaluate paraprofessional job performance. Blair and Sriram’s article offers a valuable contribution to the field and a new perspective on this topic.
A quarter-century ago, if you referenced a public-private partnership regarding campus housing, you might receive a few unknowing glances. Today, though, they are a common occurrence and are considered a critical growth area within the profession. Still, even though these P3 arrangements have been used in on-campus student housing since the 1960s, they have been underrepresented in the ACUHO-I discourse.
Such was one of the findings in Ana Hernandez’s dissertation, Public-Private Partnerships in Student Housing: A Qualitative Content Analysis of ACUHO-I Publications. Hernandez reviewed more than 12,000 publication entries and found that only approximately 160 were related to P3s in student housing. Among these, more than 100 were conference programs. Identifying a gap, Hernandez, the associate vice president of housing and residential education at the University of South Florida, where she also earned her doctoral degree, called for expanded competency development and proposed that ACUHO-I could play a more active role in developing competencies around P3s. By creating targeted professional development opportunities, she argued that members could become better equipped to navigate the complexities of public-private partnerships in student housing.
In both his role as the head of residential life at the London School of Economics and Political Science and chair of the ACUHO-I Global Initiatives Network, James Greenwood demonstrates the value of being exposed to new cultures, approaches, and ideas. On his campus, Greenwood leads all aspects of community building, well-being support, and the future direction of housing. Understanding the changing world, he has hosted several engaging webinars promoting globalization by covering topics such as the global economic impacts on campus housing, global perspectives on student well-being and mental health, and global innovation and technology in residential life.
Greenwood also helps bridge gaps while serving as the chair for the UK Residential Life network within the College and University Business Officers (CUBO) association. He regularly presents at industry conferences across the United Kingdom and Europe, including a recent presentation at the Association for Student Residential Accommodation on the importance of global networking and perspectives. Throughout the last year, Greenwood has presented at various conferences, including the Class Conference, Campus Home. LIVE!, Property Week, ASRA, and CUBO.
Tina Tormey, the director of residential education and housing at The College of New Jersey, has continually demonstrated that knowledge and experience are most valuable when shared and put into action. Powered by this belief, she has been a pillar of leadership, mentorship, and the empowerment of women within the campus housing profession and higher education as a whole.
Tormey’s work in advancing women in leadership was exemplified in her role as a key researcher in a groundbreaking time management study for senior-level women professionals in higher education. This comprehensive study, which involved more than 125 women from various institutions, offered critical insights into how women in leadership positions navigate the demands of their roles. She has co-presented these findings at multiple national conferences. Perhaps more importantly, though, these efforts have led to teaching women best practices for balancing professional demands and achieving success in high-pressure environments. In addition, as an adjunct lecturer at The College of New Jersey, she advocates for the next generation of women leaders, teaching courses such as "Single Ladies" (how social changes and women's evolving goals in relation to marriage, family, and career affect their engagement with these areas) and "All the Rage" (societal, political, and cultural perceptions of women's anger). With these courses, Tormey challenges her students to critically engage with social norms and provides tools to understand gender equity in both their personal and professional lives.
Tommy Tressler-Gelok is the dean of campus life at Wagner College and has used that position to actively participate in the promotion and inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people. He has expanded gender-inclusive housing at Wagner from a long, applicant-bearing process for only one floor in one residence hall into a robust, active, and inclusive effort that serves 10% of the residential population. He has also championed and led the development of the name-update process for students whose names do not match their gender identity or expression. This includes one-on-one meetings and mentorship with students who are navigating the process and working with various departments.
Beyond his campus, Tressler-Gelok has actively presented sessions on LGBTQIA+ inclusion and leadership throughout his tenure in NEACUHO. As president of this organization, he championed inclusion through his leadership, including the development of a diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging statement and incident response task force. He is also an active member of ACUHO-I, including serving on The Journal of College and University Student Housing review board.
Aramis Watson has repeatedly demonstrated her commitment to the ideal that creating an authentic work environment for a person of color is not possible if there is not someone in a leadership position who is willing to take risks. She has been that someone and has been willing to take risks so that the most marginalized are brought to the center. All of this has empowered her to create vibrant residential communities that promote equality and inclusion, academic engagement, and student development while staff serve as advocates and mentors for students and staff of color at Predominantly White Institutions.
Watson, the dean for residence life and student housing at Southern Methodist University, has been engaged with ACUHO-I since she was an undergraduate student. Her involvement has included active membership with the Professionals of Color network and serving as chair of the LGBTQIA+ Network, amongst others. She was selected to be part of the ACUHO-I Anti-Racism Task Force, charged with examining how campus housing and residence life professionals can contribute to the disruption of the individual biases and systemic oppression that exist on college and university campuses. She received the 2023 Robert P. Cooke Talking Stick Article of the Year Award for her work examining how and why tensions may exist between campus police staff and other staff of color. Most recently she was co-lead for the 2024 Leadership Academy, where she led advancing housing and residence life professionals from underrepresented backgrounds through a curriculum designed to help them gain leadership skills and experiences that translate to elevated positions on their home campuses and within the ACUHO-I volunteer leadership pipeline.
After studying economics at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, Benjamin Michael Dadzie is currently pursuing a master’s degree in student affairs at Clemson University. Along with overseeing nearly 800 students as community director, he has made time to be an active participant in several organizations, including the Student Personnel Association and the Graduate Student Advisory Board. He is also an ambassador for the Southern Association for College Student Affairs.
A highlight of his work has been as an advisor to the Shoeboxes Community Council at Clemson. There he mentors student leaders in the process of designing programming that celebrates cultural diversity and fosters community engagement. The council has organized events that honor residents’ unique backgrounds and cultivate a sense of belonging. He has also fostered other projects extolling the value of global perspectives and cultural competencies in higher education. Along with conference presentations, he recently published the article "Reflections of an International Student Working in Residence Life" in the Talking Stick, comparing and contrasting residence life models in Ghanaian and U.S. institutions.
Ashtyn Davis, a residence director at Texas State University, has been an active member of numerous professional organizations, including ACUHO-I, NACURH, and SWACUHO, serving on committees that explore policy, strategic planning, and advising. Meanwhile, most of this professional work has centered on student success, leadership development, and community engagement.
His primary focus has been on promoting student leadership development, believing that empowering resident assistants with the skills to lead peers is essential to creating a thriving residential community. To support that work, he developed the Resident Assistant Belonging Self-Assessment as part of his graduate school work. He describes the tool as helping RAs reflect on their sense of belonging, engagement, and effectiveness within their roles, thereby fostering their development as student leaders. The assessment process has become a part of the training program development process, allowing the team to address gaps and enhance RA support through workshops and one-on-one coaching sessions. The U.S. Department of State has since adopted the program to evaluate intern belonging and engagement, with the goal of improving the quality of the department’s intern programs.
Even though she is only 10 years into her residence life career, Keeyana Talley, the assistant director for academic initiatives and experiential learning at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, has made broad-ranging impacts on her campus and beyond by sharing knowledge and championing her department’s vision and mission. Talley has played an instrumental role in developing and implementing a comprehensive residential curriculum that focuses on wellness, decision-making, inclusion, and connection. This curriculum has provided residents with a structured approach to personal and community development, promoting learning beyond the classroom. Through these initiatives, she has set a high standard of excellence for her department and created a sustainable model for student success within housing.
Additionally, Talley has served as the program selection committee co-chair for the annual Student Affairs Conference at Clemson University and has been a repeat contributor to the Institute on the Curricular Approach, where she assisted graduate students and colleagues in understanding the key components, philosophy, and implementation of curricula. In addition, she has presented several times at ACUHO-I’s Campus Home. LIVE! and Academic Initiatives conferences. Most recently, she chaired the Academic Initiatives conference and interviewed the authors of the book Living-Learning Communities in Practice for the Talking Stick magazine. All this work has placed her at the forefront of campus initiatives designed to foster inclusive, supportive, and academically enriching residential environments.
Most anyone who has been inside an ACUHO-I conference exhibit hall in the last quarter-century is familiar with Angela Powell’s smiling face and easy laugh. After a stint as a housing hall director, Powell began working with On Campus Marketing in 1995. Today she is a regional manager for The Brill Company, working with campuses to identify and meet their furniture needs. Regardless of the company she is working for, Powell has made innumerable connections across the profession working to help campuses maximize the student experience.
Powell has also leveraged those relationships through her tireless stewardship of the ACUHO-I Foundation. A longtime volunteer and Foundation Board member, she has been one of its biggest champions. She has shown her support through her donations, volunteer hours, and sharing her testimonials about all that the Foundation makes possible.
Kevin Kruger, who recently retired as president of NASPA, dedicated his professional career to being a leader and advocate for student affairs professionals and the students that they serve. Kruger originally joined NASPA as an associate executive director in 1994 before being named president in 2012. During that time, he has been the public face of student affairs in many ways, continually writing, presenting, and being a spokesperson as he made the case for administrators and extolled the ways in which they positively impact millions of students.
Kruger came to NASPA after holding student affairs roles at Southern Methodist University and the University of Maryland. During his years there, he was part of groundbreaking developments such as growing the professional staff by more than four times, partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, launching The Placement Exchange job placement service in partnership with ACUHO-I, and several others in the areas of research, public policy, professional development, and assessment, Reflecting on his three decades with NASPA as he neared retirement, Kruger told a podcast host, “I have a lot of gratitude about just what an incredible opportunity that has been for me personally, and to have had a front row seat on the evolution of student affairs over the last 30 years. We're not what we were 30 years ago, and we're not where we were 10 years ago. To be in this chair has been enormously privileged. And so I have enjoyed literally every single day I've come to work. Just leave you with that thought. I mean, very few people have a job where they come to work every day, and they love what they do every single day. And I've had that.”