Dear Colleagues,
We hope you enjoyed the first official week of summer, despite the heat! We are writing today to share important information. As noted in previous messages, Campus Life continues to examine innovative ways that our staffing structure can best prioritize the twin goals of facilitating
student flourishing and
staff flourishing.
This past year, we established the position of associate director of returning student programs, created coordinator positions to build more robust evening and weekend student programming, and improved staffing for civic programming, including Emory Votes. We are impressed with what our colleagues in these roles have accomplished to expand student engagement. It is important, of course, that we continue these efforts and ensure we are centering our work on the student experience. To that end, we share the following updates.
First, Campus Life has created a new position, executive director of student centers. This position will provide integrated leadership to operations, programs, and services in Campus Life’s three student center facilities – Cox Hall, the Emory Student Center, and the Alumni Memorial University Center (AMUC). The position will also provide leadership for the offices of Student Center Events and Operations; Student Involvement, Leadership, and Transitions (SILT); and Community and Civic Engagement (CCE).
The executive director will report jointly to David Clark, vice president of Campus Life, and the newly created position of associate vice president and dean of students (working title), which was
announced in April as associate vice president for belonging, engagement, and community. During our search for this position, the executive director will report jointly to David and to Kyle Williams, special advisor to the senior vice president and dean of Campus Life.
Second, with the recent announcement that Ben Perlman has
accepted a position as assistant vice president with St. Louis University, Jackie Grinvalds will assume the role of director of student center operations and events. As director, she will provide leadership of operational functions for all three student centers, including meeting services, facilities, audiovisual support, and building operations. In her new role – as in her previous role as associate director of operations and events – Jackie draws on her broad experience in higher education, including many years of progressively increasing responsibility in student center operations at several universities.
Jackie played an integral role in the opening of the Emory Student Center in 2019, developed pandemic operations the following year, and manages several team members. She earned a bachelor’s in communication studies and sociology from Northwestern University and a master’s in higher education and student affairs from Indiana University.
With the new school year on the horizon, our goal is to fill the executive director position as soon as possible, preferably before fall semester begins. We have discussed these organizational changes with Jackie, James Roland (CCE), and Lisa Loveall (SILT), and we are incredibly grateful for their partnership and leadership. They will be key thought partners as we work through this transition.
We understand that you may have questions and, as always, we are available to discuss these changes with you at greater length. We appreciate all of you, and we are grateful for all that you do for our students and each other.
Enjoy the summer. Stay safe and well.
Best Wishes,
David Clark
Vice President of Campus Life
Kyle Williams
Special Advisor to the Sr. Vice President and Dean of Campus Life