By Kim Selwitz, PHENOM President
We have exciting news to share: after a rigorous, extensive search process we have hired our first ever Executive Director, Natalie Higgins.
Natalie graduated in May from the Northeastern University School of Law with her Juris Doctor. She received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is pursuing her M.S. in Public Policy part time through the UMass Dartmouth online program.
Through her senior capstone project at UMass Amherst, she successfully organized the campus community to lobby the State Legislature to pass 258E, the Harassment Prevention Order bill.
Later, as the full time Teen Counselor at Pathways for Change, Natalie provided sexual assault prevention education and outreach throughout central Massachusetts. She also organized a successful benefit concert for Pathways for Change at the Palladium in Worcester.
During law school, she received the Rappaport Fellowship in Law and Public Policy to work in the Officer of Governor Deval Patrick in Cabinet Affairs, and she received the PHRGE Fellowship to work with the Human Rights Law Network in New Delhi, India.
Natalie started working with PHENOM in August, and is particularly excited to unite students, faculty, staff, alumni and other stakeholders from the state’s public campuses to advocate for the higher education system that Massachusetts deserves. She believes that in order to do this, we need a strong PHENOM Chapter on each of the 29 campuses. Additionally, she is excited to explore new fundraising and outreach opportunities, as well as partnerships throughout the Commonwealth. Organizing an Access Conference, and creating systems to make this an annual event, is a short-term goal.
Thirteen PHENOM members participated in the hiring process. There were 31 applicants, 15 interviews and a strong field of 11 candidates with potential to lead the organization.
Please join the board as we welcome Natalie to the PHENOM team, and into the next chapter of our exciting future!