Leon Williams, director of the Multicultural Center, has announced the addition of two full-time assistant directors for the 2010-11 academic year. Melissa Jordan '06, currently part of the Multicultural Center staff, and Lauren Flinn begin their duties in August.
Jordan served as an assistant director of residence life at Elon from 2006-09, during which she supervised West Area, the Oaks and the Colonnades. In 2009, she completed a master’s degree in counseling studies from Capella University, and later that year, she joined the Multicultural Center as assistant director for multicultural education. She helped launch Elon’s interactive diversity DVD “DEEP Impact and developed both an annual diversity leadership conference and a GLBT conference.
In her new role with the center, Jordan will be responsible for monitoring the progress of the Student Mentors Advising Rising Talent (SMART) peer mentoring program, examining best practices in implementing multicultural education and advising students in diversity leadership competencies.
Flinn, a native of Boston, recently completed her master’s degree in higher education administration from Boston College and also holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Bowdoin College. She brings a broad base of knowledge about first-generation college students from her experience as a product and ambassador of The Posse Foundation, a renowned college access and youth leadership program. She has worked as a senior associate at the Steppingstone Foundation, where she was involved in college student access and retention programs. She also served with Teach for America in the Mississippi Delta region, and in her graduate assistantship at BC, she completed research about low-income and first-generation college student access and retention.
With Elon’s Multicultural Center, Flinn wll work wiht the Watson and Odyssey scholarship programs, provide leadership in the Academic Enrichment Program and track the retention of students from minority populations, including the GLBT community.