Eileen O'Brien, Harris-Stowe State College, St. Louis, MO

Past Involvement in NACADA:

Years in NACADA: 19 years
Regional Activities/Offices Held, including accomplishments achieved while in office: Secretary and member, Region 7 Steering Committee, 2002-2003-assisted with development of Region 7 Steering Committee Operating Principles and approval of region budget. Served on 2002 Region 7 Conference committee and chaired the Hospitality sub-committee.  Served on 1995 Region 7 Conference committee and the Evaluation sub-committee. Presented regional conference pre-conference workshop on grant writing and research design. Have attended numerous Region 7 Conferences.
National Offices Held and Accomplishments Achieved While in Office: none
Committee Activities and Accomplishments: On state level, currently serve as Chair of the Awards Committee, which supervises awarding of State Pacesetter Award (to administrator), Outstanding Advisor awards, and Best of State Presentations award. Also serve on ad hoc Financial Committee that will decide how surplus money generated by the conference should be handled. Have served on the By-laws committee.
Commission/Interest Group Activities and Accomplishments: Member, Advising Students with Disabilities Commission, Small Colleges and Universities Commission, and Advising Education Majors Interest Group. Past member, Multicultural Commission. Contributed to the Advising Students with Disabilities monograph, Number 5, 1997, Chapter 3: "Advising Students with Disabilities---Separate but Equal?"
Other: President, Missouri Academic Advising Association (MACADA), 2002. Charter member, MACADA. Have also served as MACADA Four-year College Representative, Newsletter Editor, Secretary, President-elect, President and Liaison. Have made numerous presentations at MACADA state conferences.

We are in this together!  I have been an academic advisor and professor for 33 years.  I am Coordinator/Faculty Facilitator of Advisement at HSSC and current President of MACADA.  It is difficult to work as an advisor without professional connections. Due to NACADA and MACADA, I have those connections.  The more we network and help each other with similar problems, the easier it is to assist students, to help them find themselves, to promote their well being, and achieve the goals of academic advisement.  This is my vision for Region 7: to network efficiently with each other.

I would like to establish Regional subcommittees of various academic advisement interest groups that could generate articles for publication in the regional newsletter, Monogram Chapter, or the NACADA Journal. I believe that through our collective experience we can provide a valuable resource to other Region 7 Advisors, especially to novice advisors. It is our duty to assist each other and to promote good practices in academic advisement.

I will work diligently to ensure that the Region 7 is the best.  After all, WE are in this together. I look forward to meeting and working with each of you in this endeavor.