Emory Campus Life is represented by a diverse and dedicated team of professionals who are passionate about the university’s overarching mission and devoted to co-creating a nurturing, respectful, and rewarding campus environment that encourages students, faculty, and staff to pursue their highest aspirations.
Enku Gelaye, JD
Senior Vice President and Dean of Campus Life
An engaged listener, visionary leader, and voice of compassion throughout the Emory community, Enku Gelaye prioritizes the amplification of student voices. She ensures that students have comfortable and attractive environments – such as the Emory student centers and student identity spaces – to relax, learn and connect with one another and the larger university community. She champions programs and engagements designed to deepen the Emory experience and sense of belonging for all students – undergraduate, graduate and professional.
Under Enku’s leadership, Campus Life is recognized internationally for cultivating a campus culture grounded in Emory’s values and the division’s mission to develop students who become informed, compassionate, conscientious, healthy, and engaged global citizens.
As senior vice president and dean of Campus Life for Emory University, Enku draws on more than 20 years of experience in student affairs and higher education. She provides strategic leadership for a division that serves more than 15,000 students and delivers a range of student support, including Health and Wellness, Counseling and Psychological Services, Debate and Civic Engagement, Student Leadership, Athletics, Recreation and Wellness, Dining, Women’s Center, LGBT Life, Sorority and Fraternity Life, and undergraduate Housing and Residence Life, among others.
Enku builds partnerships with other university leaders to advance Emory’s institutional priority of enhancing the undergraduate and graduate student experiences through fully integrating Campus Life’s work with Emory’s academic mission.
Prior to joining the Emory team, Enku served as vice chancellor of Student Affairs and Campus Life at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and earlier as that institution’s associate vice chancellor and dean of Student Affairs and Campus Life. She has held positions at the University of California, Los Angeles, as executive officer in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and as associate dean of students in the Office of the Dean of Students, and at the University of Southern California in the Office of Student Conduct.
Enku holds a juris doctor from the University of Georgia and a bachelor’s in print journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Campus Life Executive Leadership Team
Messages from the Dean's Office
March 15, 2023
Kristina K. Bethea Odejimi to join Emory as Campus Life dean of students and associate vice president
January 18, 2023
Sara Tanner named as Campus Life’s executive director of communications and strategic initiatives
November 4, 2022
Emily Teague Palmieri named Director of Emory’s Office of Respect
August 10, 2022
Lydia Washington named executive director of student centers
July 20, 2022
Michelle Johnson named inaugural director of 1915 Scholars Program
May 26, 2022
Lina Vargas Named Chief Business Officer and AVP for Campus Life