Teri Farr, NACADA President
Arriving in Portland a couple of days before the 2022 Annual NACADA conference began allowed for me to spend some time thinking and planning for how I wanted the week to go for me. Having missed 2021, and coming into the President Elect role, I held great anticipation of what to expect at this year’s annual conference, and friends, it did not disappoint.
Congratulations and kudos to the 2022 Portland organizing team who brought to over 3000 participants, both in person and virtually, a fantastic lineup of invigorating and meaningful sessions and opportunities for friends and colleagues to connect and learn from each other. I can honestly say that I returned home with a full heart and a mind full of ideas and excitement for the profession and NACADA.
Leadership in NACADA provides me and other NACADA leaders with the professional focus that we need and rely upon to help us be excellent academic advisors and administrators. I hope because of your NACADA involvement, you too have been rewarded through your leadership activities.
For those members reading this, if you are considering getting more involved in NACADA, you will never regret that decision. NACADA and the profession need your ideas, enthusiasm, and commitment to student success now more than ever. As I reminded the membership attending the opening session, we have over the last few years been stretched and pushed more than ever. We have relied upon each other more than ever and problem solved our way through the challenges, growing and learning all the way. I promise that you will never regret involvement in NACADA and can get involved at whatever level you are comfortable with. Leadership in NACADA is a personal decision and can be defined in many ways. No matter where your interests and talents lie, there is a pathway for involvement for you. We are committed as an organization to growing and thriving and staying relevant. We are your advocates, and we are at the table with decision makers in many ways.
Your NACADA Board of Directors will be active this year. We have recently begun the process of taking our strategic goals and putting them into actionable items for the benefit of the organization and the membership that we serve. Be looking for exciting and timely initiatives that will directly impact you. We are hyper focused on removing barriers for involvement; expanding access to and developing innovative professional development opportunities for all members; increasing our understanding of our global members; and acting on the needs of our global members, just to name a few. If there is one term we learned over the last few years, it is to pivot. We learned that we must move quickly and efficiently to meet the needs of our membership, and NACADA is answering that call.
I hope you will join me in supporting our organization and answering the call on your campuses to make advising central to your student success initiatives. Quality and effective academic advising is relevant and necessary now more than ever. Join me in moving our profession forward and supporting academic advising everywhere.
Teri Farr, President, 2022-2023 NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising Success Division of General Studies University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL 61820 [email protected]
Cite this article using APA style as: Farr, T. (2022, December). From the president: Pathways for NACADA involvement. Academic Advising Today, 45(4). [insert url here]
