Meet the Pillars: Pauline Dobrowski and Brandi Hephner LaBanc
Supporting the Profession
May 21, 2020
Each year, the NASPA Foundation recognizes a series of distinguished individuals who have served as leaders, teachers, and scholars in student affairs and higher education. The Pillar of the Profession Award honors members of the profession who have provided significant service to NASPA through regional and/or national leadership role, created a lasting impact on the institutions and organizations at which they have worked, leaving a legacy of extraordinary service recognized by a cross-section of stakeholders, and demonstrated sustained, lifetime professional distinction in the field of student affairs and/or higher education. Each individual is nominated and supported for designation as a Pillar by colleagues, students, friends, or others who find them deserving of this honor.
Pauline Dobrowski
Vice President for Student Affairs, Stonehill College
“It has been amazing to have a female role model like Pauline as I watch her navigate family, career, school and all other aspects of our lives. She has shown me that hard work and passion are the keys to success.”
– Jenn Kosses, Assistant Dean of Students, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Brandi Hephner LaBanc
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs & Campus Life, University of Massachusetts Amherst
“Students consistently share their appreciation of how ‘down-to-earth’ and approachable Dr. Hephner LaBanc is and how she is always willing to make time for them – to show them that they are important. Through these interactions, Dr. Hephner LaBanc is helping to lay a professional foundation for these students in which they view and treat everyone on campus and beyond as deserving of respect and worthy of time and attention.”
– Neal Hutchens, Professor and Chair, Department of Higher Education, School of Education, the University of Mississippi
If selected as a Pillar, the nominator and an assigned Foundation Board member will raise $3,500 in the name of the individual being nominated to further research and scholarship in student affairs. If you are in a position to consider, a gift to the NASPA Foundation in honor of a 2020 Pillar of the Profession will empower new outreach and expanded opportunities to support the field as we navigate unprecedented times in higher ed.