Sherlene I. Ayala our new Assistant Dean at the School of Education.
Sherlene started her career in Higher Education Administration in 2006 where she worked in Student Affairs, Multicultural Affairs, and Student Success and Retention. In 2017, Sherlene was hired by Montclair State University (MSU) to establish and launch a brand new graduate program for higher education administrators. In this role, she served as a Clinical Faculty member and taught graduate courses, developed capstone coursework, and assisted with the development of a brand new curriculum. In her most recent role at Kean University (KU), she served as the inaugural Director of the Center for Advising, Persistence and Success (CAPS). She established and launched a centralized Academic Advising center for freshmen, sophomore, juniors and transfer students under the direction and leadership of the Vice President of Student Success and Retention.
Currently, she is an Advisory Board member for NASPA. NASPA is a prominent organization for Higher Education Administrators. Furthermore, Sherlene’s most recent scholarly work can be found in the Teaching of Psychology Journal Vol 46, Issue 3, 2019. The phenomenological research study, led by Dr. Muninder K. Ahluwalia, explored the experiences of Faculty of Color who taught Multicultural Competence in counseling graduate programs. She is currently a PhD candidate at MSU Department of Counseling within the College of Education and Human Services. Her dissertation aims to explore the work experiences of Administrators of Color who serve as Directors of Diversity Centers in Higher Education.