How did you come to be the College of Education’s Doctoral Program administrator?
In undergrad I worked in a variety of roles at DePaul, including working on the Student Voter Registration project with Professor Marie Donovan. Towards the end of my undergrad, I worked as an intern in DePaul's Office of Community and Government Relations and then began to apply to jobs in the university when I graduated. Working in the CGR office, I learned a lot about DePaul and higher education which helped me to be successful in my current role.  I started in the College of Education a couple months after completing my degree.

How many years have you been in the role?
I started in the COE in October of 2023. So I'm coming up on 3 years in my role.

Can you explain what you do in your role?
I provide administrative support to faculty and students within the Doctoral program; course scheduling, adjunct faculty onboarding, event planning, and helping to guide students through the logistics of their dissertation or capstone.

Greatest challenges?
I initially struggled a lot with understanding the dissertation and capstone process as I have not completed one myself. Learning to complete format reviews in APA and guide students through publication was one of my biggest initial challenges.

Greatest memories?
I've always enjoyed the feeling of successfully hosting an event and hearing that students and faculty were able to learn from each other in a space that I helped to facilitate. Planning our annual EDSA (Education Doctoral Student Association) Conferences and our End-of-Year Celebrations are often my most logistically challenging but also rewarding tasks.

What was it like studying in one college (DCOB?) and working for another at DePaul?
I just completed my MBA in Management Information Systems in the Driehaus College of Business. It was fun to be able to apply the things I learned in class to my job, such as using my improved data skills to better our student tracking systems and provide stronger data analysis to faculty. Learning the importance of good database management while also seeing the need for it within our own college reaffirmed my interest in the field.