Drumroll please! I am proud to announce that we have a few updates to the Class Dean’s Team and the Office of Advising & Co-Curricular Programs:
Alexis Smith joins the team as our new First-Year Class Dean and Fellowships Advisor! She has over 15 years of experience in higher education and joins us from St. John’s University in New York City where she also attended graduated school. At St. John’s, she served as a Freshman Advisor, specifically working with conditionally accepted students. She also served underrepresented students as the Student Support Services Coordinator. Alexis began her career in advising at Hudson County Community College in Jersey City, NJ. While at HCCC she primarily served and advocated for students with disabilities.
Alexis is most passionate about helping students comfortably transition to college life, while motivating them to successfully achieve their educational and career goals. Although she’s been here for a few short weeks, Alexis has already made connections with members of the Class of 2026. In addition to providing overall advising support to our current first-years, she will also assist Dean Julia Goldberg in creating a pipeline for high achieving first-year students to the Scholarships & Fellowships Office. This spring — and throughout the summer — she will help onboard our 192nd class of Lafayette leopards!
Alexis is an avid swimmer. She also enjoys cooking with her young daughter. A resident of New Jersey, Alexis is a proud graduate of Saint Peter’s University where she studied English and Elementary Education.
Brandon Morris has been promoted to our Sophomore Class Dean! Brandon has been a part of the Lafayette family since 2015 and recently served as our First-Year Class Dean. He is a proud Blue Hen – earning both his undergraduate and graduate degrees at University of Delaware. Brandon brings to his new role over 10 years of experience within higher education and student transitions, onboarding, team development, staff selection/recruitment, and advising. Brandon remains an important figure in the Lafayette community with the work he has done to support our students; many of them remain close with Brandon throughout their time at Lafayette. As he transitions to the Sophomore Class Dean role, he is excited to continue his advocacy and help students further cement their academic footing at the College. He is most passionate about helping students find their voice and set goals for their life plan which is evident in his role with the Declaration of Major process, as well as the other transitional pieces.
Chris Selena has been promoted to our Senior Class Dean. Chris brings 20 years of professional advising experience to his new role, and joined Lafayette in 2014. He most recently served as our Sophomore Class Dean and the Director of the Academic Resource Hub.
In addition to his tremendous work in providing overall advising support to sophomores, he led a comprehensive restructuring of the Academic Resource Hub, building a high-performance team that has worked to enhance and diversify academic support programs and improve disability accessibility across the campus. Chris is excited to reconnect with the Class of 2023. He looks forward to the opportunity to both challenge their potential and support their success in ways that were not possible due to the challenges of COVID restrictions when they were sophomores. Overall, he feels fortunate to have the opportunity to work with seniors as they are culminating their academic career at Lafayette and transitioning to the next phase of their lives. As part of his portfolio, Chris will also oversee the academic integrity process and Honors Convocation. Chris earned his undergraduate degree in Psychology from Shippensburg University, a master’s degree in Counseling and Educational Psychology from West Chester University, and a doctorate in education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
It is absolutely worth noting that Abby Close enters her second year as our rockstar Junior Class Dean. She was promoted to this role in Summer 2021 after her outstanding and compassionate work as a College Transition Specialist! We are extremely thankful to have her as part of our team.
All students will receive communications from their respective class deans at the start of the semester. The Class Dean team will provide support to one another, students, and faculty during this transition and beyond.
I am proud to announce two additional promotions in our office!
Marty Sullivan has been promoted to the Director of the Academic Resource Hub. Marty joined Lafayette in 2019 and previously served as our Assistant Director of the Academic Resource Hub for Accessibility Services. Marty manages the day-to-day operation of the Hub and works closely with the Associate Director to coordinate Supplemental Instruction, Peer Tutoring Programs and Accessibility Services. She completed her undergraduate degree at Cedar Crest College and her graduate degree at Lehigh University. Marty lives in Hellertown, PA and is the mom of two great young men and a wonderful daughter in law.
Tingting Kang has been promoted to the Director of the English for Academic Purposes Center. She joined Lafayette in 2016 as our inaugural Multi-language Learner Support Specialist. Since then, she has gone above and beyond her role by providing a comprehensive academic support and advising system to help multi-language learners handle a range of academic, personal, and social issues and educating the Lafayette community on how to better support the multi-language learners. Tingting earned her master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the Murray State University in Kentucky, and her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the Northern Arizona University.
Please join us in congratulating these wonderful people on their promotions and continued great work!