Melinda J. Anderson, NACADA Executive Director
With a flip of the calendar, we find ourselves in June, the halfway point of the year. June ushers in the first official day of summer, sunshine and warmer days, summer vacations (hopefully) and a chance to exhale (another hopefully). Just as spring flowers disappear and summer fruits ripen, many campuses send their newest graduates into the world while welcoming students who are now preparing for their futures. It is this cycle of campus life—and the connections we build with incredible students—that inspires us to continually improve the student experience and provide the best support possible.
It was wonderful to host our regional conferences in-person this spring, and we are so grateful to the more than 2,000 NACADA members who participated in these events. I want to again thank all of the Region conference committees, Region chairs and our executive office staff for their hard work and dedication to this tremendous experience. I was fortunate to attend all but one Region conference this year as I felt that it was important to engage with our members to learn firsthand what changes were occurring on their campuses and how our work was evolving since the pandemic. I was honored to serve as keynote for six of the regional conferences and thrilled to meet new colleagues at each of them.
My first year in this position has been exciting, thrilling, exhausting, and full of surprises. I am growing as a leader, we are growing as an association, and our profession is ever-evolving. Together, we will lead the way to better support for our students and their success. I am discovering new dimensions of our profession, increasing my business acumen, and I have never been so sure about where my feet need to be in terms of serving our association and leaders right now. NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising and our members are critical to student success and ultimately to the health of higher education institutions. Our leaders, the executive office, and I understand what needs to happen to ensure our growth, sustainability, and influence of our association to get us there.
Our exceptional Summer Institutes will be hosted in Erie, Pennsylvania this year, and I am looking forward to connecting with colleagues and members in the engaging curriculum designed to support their needs on their respective campuses. We continue to look toward the annual conference—which will be here in a few flips of calendar pages—in Portland, Oregon where we will celebrate the incomparable Charlie L. Nutt, who has officially retired from the executive office after 20 years of service.
Melinda J. Anderson, Ed.D. Executive Director NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising mranderso@ksu.edu
Cite this article using APA style as: Anderson, M. (2022, June). From the executive director: Discovering new dimension. Academic Advising Today, 45(2). [insert url here]
