2017 NASPA IV-W New Professionals Institute (NPI)

This year’s Regional Conference titled “Cultivating a New Crop” in Lincoln, Nebraska will feature a New Professionals Institute (NPI). NPI is an opportunity for student affairs professionals who have been in the field for 5 years or less to network, learn, and grow together. True to the conference theme, NPI is essential to strengthening and building pathways to continue and foster the future of the profession. As Co-Chairs, Allan Ford and myself are excited to share with you the amazing faculty behind this year’s institute. Leading up to the conference, we will feature faculty of NPI by sharing their bios, background and experiences. This month we share words from Dr. Pat Tetreault, the Director of the LGBTQA+ Resource Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Dr. Gilbert Hinga currently serves as CSAO at the University of Nebraska-Kearney.

Dr. Pat Tetreault

This fall I will have been a Student Affairs professional for 25 years. While in graduate school, I had anticipated being a faculty member in a Psychology or Criminal Justice Department. However, life has a way of taking us down paths that we may not expect. My training in Social and Cognitive Psychology, Psychology of Women, and Legal Studies definitely provided me with education and experience that I have been able to use well within the field of Student Affairs, particularly in areas of sexual health promotion, diversity and inclusion. I have been fortunate to have found an environment where I am able to use scholarship and to put it into practice. Having arrived in Student Affairs without having obtained a degree in Student Affairs, I learned about Student Affairs on the job. My work also was in areas that were both newly created when I accepted the position (first as Sexuality Education Coordinator and then as Student Involvement’s Director of the LGBTQA+ Resource Center).  This provided me with the opportunity to develop programming and services from the ground up, utilizing an inclusive and comprehensive approach, supporting the programming and outreach with scholarship and the knowledge and experience of others working in the field. The value of mentors, experience, dialogue, and support are invaluable. I am privileged to be able to develop and provide programming and services that fit my value system; and I continually learn from others, including our students! I also recognize the value of having Student Affairs as many of the programs and services available now were not when I was a student. My experience as an undergraduate, graduate student, post-doctoral fellow, client advocate, and Student Affairs employee as well as my life experience have helped inform what I do and what I bring to the field. Each of us has our own path and journey but it is not one we have to take alone. I look forward to joining you on your path for a brief time at NPI with the hope that our paths will continue to intersect!

Dr. Gilbert Hinga

This fall will mark about 23 years as a professional in Student Affairs. Some of my most formative experiences in Student Affairs began as an undergraduate when I served as an RA and Resident Hall Director in a work college in North Carolina. My RA years made a remarkable imprint on my perspective of the crucial role that a peer community has in shaping the educational experience of students. My experiences as a Clinical Psychologist, years later, bolstered that experience with intimate insights into the resiliency and grit that accompanies the often silent, personal, suffering part of the experience of many students. My administrative experiences through the years has brought to clear focus the humility of heart and remarkable thick skin that is required to serve students boldly. My experiences in seven different institutions of higher learning has reinforced the reality that though we are all from different institutions, Student Affairs professionals are remarkably similar in our common drive and passion for developing quality student experiences and success. The roads that lead to Student Affairs are many, but we all seem driven by a calling that is part of something greater and higher than any one of us individually. Cultivating a new crop takes a village and I hope that, in my role as NPI faculty, I will help fan the spark and flame that exists in many of our relatively newer Student Affairs professionals who may be awakening to the gifts and talents that they bring to the Student Affairs profession and to Higher Education in general.

NPI will take place Sunday November 5th- Tuesday November 7th. To register and apply for NPI, please visit: https://www.naspa.org/events/2017-naspa-iv-west-regional-conference/register

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or need additional information. We look forward to seeing you in Lincoln, NE!

NPI Co-Chairs,

Sara Mata, Ph.D.
She/Her/Hers
NSF National Traineeship (NRT) Program Coordinator
University of Oklahoma
sara.mata@ou.edu

Allan Ford
He/Him/His
Title IX/Compliance Coordinator
Northeastern State University
ford40@nsuok.edu