Program proposals by Dr. Rae Chresfield, assistant vice president for health and wellbeing, have been accepted to the 2025 European Conference for Student Affairs and Services, and to the 2025 Advancing School Mental Health Conference.
In November, Dr. Chresfield will attend NASPA’s European Conference for Student Affairs and Services in Porto, Portugal. The conference provides a platform for student services professionals, academics, researchers, and policymakers to discuss innovative programs, practices, models and trends in student affairs.
Dr. Chresfield will present “Anchored and Adaptive: Embedding Wellbeing, Resilience, and Meaning in the Practice of Student Affairs”: Student Affairs professionals face unprecedented challenges while supporting students through global uncertainty. This innovative session integrates well-being, resilience, and meaning-making as interconnected professional competencies. Participants will engage with practical frameworks: “Four Pillars of Wellbeing,” “Three R' of Resilience,” and meaning cultivation strategies, and develop 30-day implementation plans with peer accountability partnerships.
In December, Dr. Chresfield will attend the Advancing School Mental Health Conference in Orlando, Florida. This premier interdisciplinary conference focuses on school mental health and brings together local, state, national, and international experts to advance knowledge and skills related to school mental health practice, research, training, and policy. It unites educators, counselors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, physicians, mental health leaders, policymakers, practitioners, researchers, family members, advocates, and other partners in the school mental health field to share the latest research and best practices. The conference emphasizes a shared school-family-community agenda to promote mental health, prevent issues, and provide interventions for students and families as part of a multi-tiered system of support.
Dr. Chresfield will present “Empowering Non-Clinical Staff to Support Student Mental Health”: The rising student mental health crisis necessitates expanding support beyond traditional clinical services. This study examines training non-clinical staff—teachers, administrators, residence advisors, and support personnel—to serve as mental health first responders. Through targeted training in mental health literacy, warning sign identification, and referral protocols, non-clinical staff can effectively bridge gaps between distressed students and professional services.
Over 10 years ago, Tania Lizarazo met with Justa Mena Córdoba in Chocó, Colombia. Before Mena Córdoba passed away, Lizarazo promised to tell her story as one of the founding commissioners of the Gender Commission of COCOMACIA, Colombia’s largest Afro-Colombian peasants’ association.
With her new book, Postconflict Utopias: Everyday Survival in Chocó, Colombia (University of Illinois Press, 2024), Lizarazo fulfills that promise. “It means a lot to me to publish this book as this was my first collaborative research project,” says Lizarazo, associate professor of modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication and global studies. “I promised Justa that I would do my best to share her story and legacy of peace-building amidst decades of ongoing violence by supporting women’s daily work.”
Lizarazo (red shirt) with members of the Gender Commission COCOMACIA. (Image courtesy of Lizarazo)
Lizarazo’s interest in Latin American cultural studies and transnational feminist research led her to explore the Gender Commission of COCOMACIA. Curious to learn more, Lizarazo reached out to Mena Córdoba. She invited Lizarazo to her home and the headquarters of the commission, both in Chocó, located in the northwest, bordering Panama and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and where the largest Afro-Colombian community in the country lives. For over a decade, Mena Córdoba served as Lizarazo’s friend, mentor, and fellow researcher.
Many scholars, says Lizarazo, both Colombian like herself, and foreign, research the Colombian Pacific and use ethnography as their main research approach. She notes that while she uses ethnography, her work also places the community on equal footing with researchers. The book documents the collaboration between Lizarazo and the Afro-Colombian women of the Gender Commission. The team used digital storytelling tools to document the commission’s daily efforts to build networks and share resources that strengthen their families, schools, jobs, and communities.
Tania Lizarazo (l) with a member of the Gender Commission of COCOMACIA at the community radio station. (Image courtesy of Lizarazo)
“Sometimes we highlight protests but ignore the daily mundane actions that build over time and make collective survival possible. This is the case for Black women in the Colombian Pacific,” explains Lizarazo for The Conversation. “Their solidarity is a reminder that peace and justice are a collaborative, everyday effort. As Justa told me in 2012: “One cannot change the world by herself.”
Learn more about Lizarazo’s collaboration with fellow UMBC faculty María Célleri, Yolanda Valencia, and Thania Muñoz to document the experiences of Latinx communities with Latinx communities in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
Visit the Walters Art Museum’s new “Latin American Art/ Arte Latinoamericano” exhibit, where Lizarazo contributed her expertise in Colombian history.
]]>The Retriever Essentials student pantry staff is a part-time employee position of RSS at UMBC. Staff is responsible for fostering a welcoming and clean environment.
Primary Responsibilities:
Qualifications:
Preferred Qualifications:
The Welcome, Retrievers! program still has a need for volunteers for various programs! If you have capacity and you are willing to help support this amazing program, please sign up!
We’re currently seeking volunteers to help with multipe aspects of this program. Whether you’re staffing information tables, preping materials, or just offering a friendly smile, your participation will make a real difference in helping our students feel at home from day one.
Volunteer shifts are available from 8/11 through 8/29, and you can sign up for one or more time slots based on your availability.
Sign up here: https://signup.com/go/XTUfjXO
Thank you in advance for considering this opportunity. Please feel free to send any questions to welcomeretrievers@umbc.edu
Additionally, if you're looking for more opportunities to Welcome Retrievers! Residential Life is seeking UMBC faculty, staff and alumni to help welcome new and returning students on both Saturday, August 23 and Monday, August 25. For more information or to sign-up please complete their sign-up form before August 8, 2025. For questions related to Residential Life volunteer opportunities, please contact Amanda Scally (scallya@umbc.edu). Thank you for your consideration and support of new and returning residential students/families!
]]>A section of FINC 150 (Financial Literacy) has been added to the Fall schedule. It meets M 710-940 evenings in hybrid format. If interested in financial topics such as: career decisions and income, credit, taxes, saving, spending, investing, insurance, housing, and personal finance in general this should be of interest. Contact Professor Lamdin for any questions <lamdin@umbc.edu>
This website briefly explains the value of personal finance knowledge.
7 Reasons You Should Sign Up for a Personal Finance Course
This course is an ENTR minor elective and also a SS general education course.
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