Our Bloggers

Co-Editors

Kristen Abell is a web coordinator at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and has been in student affairs for over ten years, give or take, in a variety of roles. She’s worked primarily in housing and women’s centers at three different universities over that time. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology, women’s studies and English and a master’s in social welfare from the University of Kansas.

Kristen currently serves as the Information Technology Coordinator for the IV-West Region of NASPA and webmaster for the NASPA Technology Knowledge Community. She has been blogging since 2006 on her personal blog – Kristendom – and also has a technology and student affairs blog – Kristendom Talks Tech. She is a self-proclaimed geek extraodinaire.

In her spare time, she reads way too much, watches the occasional TV show (mostly ones that have been off air for a year or two) while doing some sort of craft or playing computer games, and shares a home with her two favorite people – her partner and son.

KM MayKathryn Magura is the Operations Manager for Assignments & Customer Service at Oregon State University. Kathryn has worked for University Housing and Dining Services at Oregon State since 2001 in a variety of evolving roles. With a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology, and a Master of Education degree in College Student Services Administration (both from Oregon State University), Kathryn has devoted her career to finding ways to utilize technology to enhance the customer service experience on a college campus.

Most recently, Kathryn worked with a development team to build an open-source information system, Tillikum that was implemented on the OSU campus a year ago and has been recognized as a regionally award-winning project. Kathryn is also an advocate for utilizing social media to interact with students.

In her spare time, Kathryn enjoys drinking wine, watching television, and reading a good novel. Kathryn is a self-described pop culture junky, and knows the lyrics to far too many classic rock songs.

Bloggers

Brenda Bethman has been working in higher education since 1993, when she started studying for her master’s degree in German literature at Temple University. Brenda originally attended graduate school with a plan of becoming a faculty member and headed off to UMass Amherst for a Ph.D. in Modern German Studies. Along the way, she started working as a conference and grant coordinator for the DEFA Film Library and discovered that while she likes teaching and researching, she was clearly born to work in administration. Since 2001 she has been lucky enough to work at places (first Texas A&M University and now the University of Missouri-Kansas City) that allow her to do a little bit of everything. She directs the women’s center, teaches, and fits in research where possible. The best part is that she gets paid to be a “professional feminist” and hang out with the amazing women of Kansas City. It’s a good gig.

Along the way, Brenda was dragged kicking and screaming onto Facebook and is now a social media fiend. It’s been invaluable in her work with students, colleagues, and women’s center constituents, not to mention keeping up with far-flung friends and relatives.

When Brenda is not working (which is not often enough), you’ll find her enjoying good food in Kansas City’s many fine restaurants, reading, and traveling. (If you’re interested in the more formal version of this bio, click here).

Anitra Cottledge is the Assistant Director of the Women’s Center at the University of Minnesota. She earned her master’s degree from the University of Minnesota in educational policy and administration, with a research focus on women of color in higher education administrative leadership. Cottledge is also an instructor in the University’s Leadership Minor, and her writing has appeared in the anthology, Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists (2010).

Her research interests include: leadership, race, women of color feminisms, economic justice, vocation/career pathways, digital divides, and uses of social media. She taught herself HTML back in the 90s, but is still sometimes a technological late bloomer. An avid writer, she still struggles with what exactly to include in bios like this. Anitra is just as likely to integrate odd pop culture references into her everyday speech as she is to have a Radical Black Feminist Rage Moment™. In her ever-elusive spare time, Anitra co-coordinates a multicultural, multi-genre writing group, works on her family tree, and impresses herself everytime she gets through a Zumba routine.

Lauren Creamer is a graduate student at Northeastern University studying College Student Development and Counseling. She is a Graduate Assistant for Living Learning Communities (LLC) at Northeastern specializing in the development and assessment of the LLC program. Within the field of student affairs her interests are academic initiatives and living learning communities in residential life, career services, academic advising, experiential learning, study abroad, and social media and technology. In her free time she loves to read, watch re-runs of the West Wing, and play Rugby and Ultimate.

 

 

Jessica Faulk has been talking talking tech for over 20 years.  Her very first computer (not counting her Atari) was a hand-me-down black and white Macintosh Classic.  However, it was her Macintosh Performa that really made her fall in love with all of the possibilities that computers and the budding internet could bring into our lives.  Since then she has developed an intense curiosity for new technology and how to make it useful in our day to day lives.  Jess also has a strong interest in design, and tries to find ways to wed her love for graphics and tech.

Jess’ daytime alter-ego is as the Director of Residence Life at Simmons College in Boston, MA. Before coming to Simmons in 2006, Jess made the long journey to Boston by way of Ohio, where she spend two wonderful years at Bowling Green State University & Heidelberg College. Her career in Student Affairs began in the University of California, Santa Barbara’s wonderful Residence Life program which still serves as an inspiration today.

Jess stays active in her tech life on the Technology and Media & Publications NEACUHO committees and as the Technology Coordinator for the Boston Area College Housing Association (BACHA).

Julia Golden

 

 

 

 

Julia Golden joined the Simmons College family in the Fall of 2010 as a Campus Life Coordinator and Resident Director of Evans and Smith Hall. Julia is currently the Assistant Director of Residence Life. She has been working at women’s institutions for nearly six years.
Prior to her work at Simmons, she worked at Mount Holyoke College and received her M.Ed from Springfield College. She proudly serves on the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association for UMASS Dartmouth her alma mater. Julia is also the Social Chair for the NASPA GLBT Knowledge Community.  She has been a member of NASPA and ACPA since 2006.
When people ask Julia what inspires her to work at a women’s college she says it is the diverse dialogue that can happen between students, the traditions and the communities that are built. Her hope is to empower and enlighten her students.On her free time she loves exploring Boston! The ICA is her favorite museum. Her ultimate goal: To one day support or build a school for young girls in Honduras.

 

 

Jennifer Keegin is the Associate Director for Campus Activities at Binghamton University. Jennifer is a founding member of the Social Media Community of Practice for the Association for College Unions International and has a general interest in all social media programs that can be utilized for marketing to students while creating community on-line. Jennifer has also spent a great deal of time over her 12 years in the activities field setting up and breaking down sound systems, video game tournaments and large screen movie presentations.

 

 

Colleen Riggle is the Assistant Dean of Students/Director of Women’s Resource Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  She joined the Women’s Resource Center at Georgia Tech the summer of 2006 in the newly created Program Coordinator role. In this role, Colleen assisted in creating programs for women on campus, as well as working on the sexual violence initiatives and co-chairing the GT Body Image committee.

Colleen is the newly elected co-chair of the National Women’s Studies Association Women’s Center Committee and “webmistress” for the Women in Student Affairs Knowledge Community with in NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. She has a bachelor’s degree in exercise and health science from Alma College and master’s degree in college student affairs leadership from Grand Valley State University. Her master’s thesis focused on body image among Greeks (males and females) at Grand Valley State University.

Colleen founded the Women’s Resource Center at The University of Tampa in 2003 and volunteered for three year at the local Crisis Center with the Nurse Examiner Program (NEP). In 2005, she received the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Outstanding New Professional in Residence Life Award. In 2008, she received the Division of Student Affairs Award of Excellence and the Collegiate Panhellenic Council (CPC) Apple Award for her dedication to the Safe Sister Program.