Pamela Person     
Director, Center for First Year Experience and Learning Communities
With University of Cincinnati community for five years (full-time)

Pamela Person is the current Director for First Year Experience and Learning Communities.  Her position affords her direct contact with, and advocacy for, students and their success while at UC on a grand scale.  We caught up with Person and asked her to share a few personal thoughts with us during Women’s History Month. 

UCWC What three accomplishments are you most proud of?

PP:      1. My recent award as a 2007 Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate.  “For 15 years, this award – sponsored by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition (based at the University of South Carolina) and the Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company – has recognized college faculty, administrators, staff and students for their work with first-year students, and the impact their efforts have on students as well as the culture of their institutions.”

See http://www.uc.edu/profiles/profile.asp?id=5190 for the full article issued by UC.

2.  My two most recent positions, Director of the Center for First Year Experience and Learning Communities at UC as well as my position as Director of Career Services at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have required me to either create or revitalize programs that help students to achieve their academic and professional development goals.  I am proud of my ability to thoughtfully visualize possibilities and then to provide appropriate leadership to implement plans that help to transform those possibilities into reality.  In both of the positions just mentioned I feel like my work has made a lasting difference for individual students as well as the culture and organizational effectiveness of the universities.

3.  Creating a good family life with my husband and parenting our children, Spencer (age 6) and Abby (age 2). 

UCWC: What do you wish someone had told you earlier in life?

PP: It’s OK to not be perfect (or to not follow the rules/ not do what people expect of you) AND even with in your imperfection you can celebrate your gifts and go forward with confidence.  Of course, I was probably told that.  I’m just not sure I believed it. 

UCWC: Where would you like to see women move to socio-economically in the coming years?

PP:  I would like to see women achieve long-term economic security.  It concerns me that women are still often not as financially secure as their male peers.  It particularly concerns me as our population grows older.

UCWC: Where do you see your generation contributing to the empowerment of women?

PP:  My generation believed women could have it all:  families, careers, equal rights, and equal education.  Younger generations have discovered some fallacies in this line of thinking but overall I think that the belief structure of my generation has enabled women to take advantage of opportunities that they might not otherwise have sought out.

 

The UC Women’s Center is honored to recognize Pamela Person’s contribution to campus.