After 10 years of serving the Stevens community, Kristie Damell, Associate Dean of Students and Title IX Coordinator, has stepped down from her position. She will take a new position as Director of Student Life at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The Office of Student Life will be looking to fill her position in the upcoming months.
Damell has had many responsibilities that influenced students in many areas. Claiming that her position “lives in three worlds,” Damell was one of the Honor Board advisors and met with students going through hearings due to violations, was an Associate Dean of Student Life involved in fraternity and sorority life, civic engagement, and safe zone training, and was the Title IX Coordinator.
With Damell juggling so many different responsibilities, which all required a lot of her time and attention, “[it is] hard to just focus on one of these three areas,” Damell said. She has been heavily involved in the creation of SPEAK UP, a bystander intervention training program, as well as other Title IX training and sexual education programs. She has even paired up with RAs and helped them organize events like Sex Bingo. Also, as part of the revamping of orientation and the first-year experience, Damell assisted with introducing the required first-year reading to encourage students to take different viewpoints. Leaving Stevens “in a good place,” she believes that her projects from over the years have become stable enough to last without her.
Damell feels that her leaving will be a good thing for Student Life. All her responsibilities will be divided into three new positions; now there will be more people to focus on their specific responsibilities instead of just one. Damell looks at this as a positive result of her departure: “I feel better now that my job is being divided up… [there will be] more hands in the pot.” The new positions consist of a Director of Student Life, who will deal with the day-to-day running of the department, such as overseeing Greek Life and managing orientation; a position responsible for conduct cases and Title IX investigations, as well as assisting Kenneth Nilsen, Dean of Student Life, with some of his responsibilities; and a Wellness coordinator who will focus on educational programs for mental health and sexual education.
During the transitional period, Damell’s roles have been split up amongst various staff members. Christopher Shemanski will be stepping in for Damell’s Student Life roles, with assistance from Sara Klein. Philip Gehman will be the main Title IX investigator, as he has already been involved with Title IX; Damell wanted to ensure that students can go to him as easily as they went to her. Veronika Paprocka will be overseeing Diversity Education and the Lore-El Center for Women’s Leadership.
As Damell reflected on her time at Stevens, she can’t help but admit that “everything has changed” since her first day, but, in her opinion, all in the positive direction. “[The] freshman class has more than doubled,” Damell said, “and the reputation of Stevens has skyrocketed.” Because of this exponential growth of Stevens’ name, Damell feels that now the “quality of students has become more competitive” and that this boost has resulted in the “now expanding facilities.” Damell tops off this list of pros with a final note on this change: “now there has been this great growth of diversity and even more inclusion [here].” She has experienced a lot of change here and is looking forward to the challenges she will face at NJIT.
In her time here, Damell had also developed a role in the musical department at Stevens. “I’ve been so lucky to be a part of the musical part of Stevens and will miss supporting that,” she assured. But don’t worry, Damell promised she’ll be back as she hopes to see the music part of Stevens continue to grow. Admitting that it was hard deciding to leave Stevens, Damell remembers her 10 years here fondly. Before becoming the Associate Dean, she had three other positions, experienced two different Stevens presidents, and saw a growth in both facilities and diversity. Stevens forever holds a special place in her heart, a place where she got married and had her kids. Now she will be able to be closer to her kids and be more present for them.
Damell closed her interview with some final words for the Duck community: Take every opportunity at Stevens, it has a lot of resources at our fingertips; furthermore, be comfortable with the uncomfortable. “Enjoy the awkward” and challenge yourself.
A lot of the Stevens students expressed bittersweet feelings, said that they will greatly miss her, and jokingly implored her to stay, yet wished her the best, and to never stop being a Duck at heart.
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