“This is something that you don’t see a lot in higher education or student affairs. Having a standalone dedicated staff member for professional development is such an exciting opportunity for our division,” says Lauren Brown, director of professional development for USC’s Division of Student Affairs and Academic Support.

Brown inaugurated her role last summer and has spent just over a year leading staff development and engagement programs for the division. Before that, she worked in the Student Success Center and served on the division’s volunteer professional development committee. When a role opened up to lead that team on a full-time basis, Brown says she was excited to continuing working with the committee but take some of the extra stress off of the other members’ plates.

“It’s the idea of servant leadership, where I can say, ‘Hey, I have experience in this, I can relate to you as a staff member that's on the PD team. I know what your workload is, I know that you're doing professional development stuff on behalf of the division, but you're also doing your full-time job responsibilities,’” Brown says.

Collaborating over coffee

In 2024, the division hosted 15 professional development events spread over the campus footprint and generated more than 900 engagements.

That number is expected to grow for 2025, thanks in part to the Coffee and Collaborations series that visits different areas of the division each week, focusing on networking with colleagues and exposure to different offices and departments. Already, the Leadership & Service Center, Housing, the Student Success Center and Shared Services have served up cups of coffee during the first half of the year.

“In the past year, these networking events have really started helping people connect,” Executive Director of Human Resources Alicia Bervine says. “Plus, you get to know other areas and see their space. You’re going to housing and networking with people over there. The Student Success Center did a short presentation in March, so the division is seeing how everyone impacts students as well.”

Creating a wider division community

Brown says the increased focus on professional development creates great cross-divisional learning opportunities for staff, regardless of their experience or where they come from. But her task is to make sure those learning opportunities reach every corner of the division to be the most successful.

“One, I think it's important because not every staff member in the division has the capacity to go to conferences, participate in webinars, things of that nature,” Brown says. “So our professional development in house provides kind of those outlets for them to be able to participate in things.”

Moving into the fall semester, the professional development team plans to expand the work it does to welcome new employees to the division. That will start with expanding new employee orientations to more dates on the calendar and re-opening the division duos program — which partners an experienced student affairs mentor with a mentee from within the division.

“We always tend to get more people who want mentors than we do get mentors for the program. I think a lot of that is that sometimes people with some experience, maybe at the director level, want a mentor who can help them take the next step. But they don't necessarily realize that they can also be a great mentor for someone who is earlier in their career,” Bervine says.

What’s next

This July, the professional development team is hosting the second annual Aspire & Advance conference. The two-day conference on July 24 and July 25 will focus on the theme of Disrupting the Ordinary and feature keynote speeches from two former USC employees.

Dr. Hilary L. Lichterman, now the Director of Housing & Residential Life at Seattle University and fellow at the Global Curiosity Institute, will open up the event with her session “Curiosity: Your Superpower for Disrupting the Ordinary.” A day later, attendees can hear from Moryah Jackson, who serves as Executive Director for Central South Carolina Habitat for Humanity and host of the podcast “Lead with Heart,”as she closes with “Leadership in Action: Stay Curious.”

And congratulations to Lauren Brown, who recently welcomed her first child at the end of March. Brown returned to the university in mid-June and is excited to hit the ground running heading into the new year.