New staff join community centers
In the last month, the centers for Women’s Community, Queer Student Resources and Asian American Activities have each welcomed employees into roles aimed at helping students thrive at Stanford.
Three community centers that serve Stanford students have recently welcomed new staff members into roles focused on supporting the campus community. The Women’s Community Center, the Queer Student Resources Center and the Asian American Activities Center, or A3C, each filled positions that also assist the centers’ directors.
The new staff members are Dejah Carter, Daniel Alvarez and Latana Thaviseth.
Dejah S. Carter (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)
Dejah Carter joined the Women’s Community Center on Sept. 24 as assistant director, reporting to Director Faith Kazmi. In this role, Carter will oversee the center’s communications team, feminist discussions, health and wellness initiatives, support the work of student staff and assist in the day-to-day operations of the center.
In 2014, Carter received a bachelor’s degree in history and African American studies from the University of Virginia. She spent two years working as a paralegal before returning to UVA for graduate school. This past May, she received a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs. At UVA she advised transfer students, worked in the women’s center and conducted community outreach. In her role at the UVA women’s center, she also helped organize the first Back Womanhood in College workshop, which brought local African American girls in high school to UVA to prepare them for the college application process and expose them to different perspectives of black womanhood within a collegiate environment.
Through her work with the Women’s Community Center, as well as collaborative work with the Centers for Equity, Community and Leadership, Carter aims to help improve the student experience at Stanford. “I think it’s important that students feel that they’re in a welcoming environment where they can thrive in all areas of their life,” she said.
Danny Alvarez (Image credit: Courtesy of Danny Alvarez)
Danny Alvarez has worked at Stanford for two years, but recently accepted a new post as the associate director of the Queer Student Resources Center. In this capacity, Alvarez will support Director Ben Davidson, work on initiatives related to institutional and cultural change, help connect individual students to resources on campus and work with the center’s student staff. Alvarez previously worked in both Residential Education and the Diversity and First-Gen Office before joining the Queer Student Resources Center last month.
“It’s a really exciting time to be working with this population because there’s so much institutional work being done for trans people and gender nonconforming students, so it felt like a good time to make that switch,” said Alvarez. “As a queer and trans person, I felt it was a good opportunity to work with my own community.”
Before joining Stanford in 2016, Alvarez worked at the University of Michigan managing a program for intergroup relations and teaching students how to facilitate and focus on identity work. Alvarez holds a bachelor’s degree in African American studies from Earlham College in Indiana and a master’s degree in social work with a focus in community organizing from the University of Michigan.
Latana Thaviseth (Image credit: Courtesy of Latana Thaviseth)
Latana Thaviseth joined Stanford on Oct. 1 as the assistant director of the Asian American Activities Center. In this role, she’ll provide general support for the center and its director, Cindy Ng, and associate director, Jerald Adamos.
Thaviseth most recently worked at Highline College in Des Moines, Washington, where she was a data analyst for equity, diversity and inclusion. She also conducted program evaluation and assessment for the Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions Program, or AANAPISI, which provides grants and related assistance to Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions to help them improve and expand their capacity to serve students and low-income individuals.
In addition to working with A3C, Thaviseth is also pursuing a doctorate in higher education and organizational change, with a focus on Southeast Asian students, at the University of California, Los Angeles.