Retention Specialist, La Plaza

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Western Washington University, with over 15,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Western has additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles, and Poulsbo. Western is recognized nationally for its successes, such as being named one of the top public master's‑granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.

Western Washington University is committed to achieving excellence through advancing inclusive success, increasing our Washington impact, and focusing on transformational education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and based on innovative scholarship, research, and creative activity. Western's greatest strength is the outstanding students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae who make up its community. Western supports an inclusive governance structure for all and provides a learning and working environment in which everyone can thrive.

In pursuit of this excellence, individual employees are expected to establish and maintain productive and effective inclusive working relationships amongst diverse populations including staff, faculty, administration, student, and external constituents. Further, individual employees are expected to have the ability to operationalize sustainability concepts (economic, societal, environmental) into all aspects of performing their job duties.

Multicultural Student Services supports Western's mission, which states that together with our students, staff, and faculty, we are committed to making a positive impact in the state and the world with a shared focus on academic excellence and inclusive achievement. We encourage applications from women, people of color, people with disabilities, veterans, and other candidates from underrepresented backgrounds and with diverse experiences interested in this opportunity.

Established in 2021, the Office of Multicultural Student Services (MSS) is dedicated to supporting and serving all students, with a special focus on those from historically marginalized communities. We provide leadership and guidance for a variety of student organizations and resources, including the Black Student Coalition (BSC), Blue Resource Center (BRC), Ethnic Student Center (ESC), and La Plaza. Soon, MSS will also be home to an Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) cultural center.

The La Plaza Retention Specialist is responsible for the daily operations, programming, and student engagement at the La Plaza Latine resource center. The Retention Specialist for La Plaza is a key retention agent at Western centering Latine students and that develops and creates bridges to academic and co‑curricular resources, advises and supports students with culturally‑appropriate and inclusive services, and supports the holistic wellbeing and thriving of Western Washington University (WWU) students through co‑curricular programming, supportive advising and counseling, and referrals to other university and community resources.

The Retention Specialist will be supervised by the Director of Multicultural Student Services and will collaborate with the staff and programs within The Office of Multicultural Student Services, LGBTQ+ Western, and Disability Access Center. Together, the three departments make up The Centers for Student Access, Community, and Intercultural Engagement Unit within Academic Affairs.

The Retention Specialist will also collaborate with community partners and organizations to bridge relationships with prospective students, current students, alumni, and community members.

• Program development and management:
  Manage the daily operations of the La Plaza, the Latine Student Resource Center.
• Create…