Dear Barnard Community Members,
We hope this email finds you and your families well.
We write today to announce two exciting new personnel changes in Beyond Barnard, the Dean's Office, and the Provost’s Office.
First, we are excited to announce that Dean Nikki Youngblood Giles will assume the role of Vice Dean of the College - Campus Life. In this new position, Nikki will supervise Student Life and Residential Life, as well as Opportunity Programs, Student Success, and International Student Services (the three areas that comprise the newly created Access Barnard). Nikki joined the College in 2008 initially as Associate Director, Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP). Since that time, Nikki supported the community in a variety of roles, most recently as Dean of Beyond Barnard, all while completing her doctoral studies at New York University in the spring of 2018. Nikki earned her BA in Child Development at Spelman College and an MA in Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College. Nikki's doctoral research examined the experiences of students who identify as first-generation and low-income at elite institutions.
Second, we are pleased to announce that A-J Aronstein, who will continue as Dean of Beyond Barnard, will assume an additional role as Senior Advisor to the Provost. In this new role, A-J will work closely with the senior Provost team and will oversee key strategic projects. A-J arrived at the College in 2018 as Associate Dean of Beyond Barnard, alongside Nikki Youngblood Giles. Prior to his work at Barnard, A-J served as the inaugural Director of Graduate and Postdoctoral Career Development team at the University of Chicago. He also taught in UChicago's MA Program in the Humanities, from which he earned a master's degree in 2010. As a Jefferson Scholar at the University of Virginia, he completed a BA in Political & Social Thought and Comparative Literature. His critical work has appeared in Guernica, The Paris Review, Tin House, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere.
Jointly, A-J and Nikki grew Beyond Barnard from a concept for how to combine student employment, student career services, and student fellowship support into a single, integrated, collaborative, and extraordinarily valued destination office for students, alumnae, employers, and other College partners.
We are deeply grateful to Nikki and A-J for their continued work on behalf of the College and their willingness to take on new responsibilities in support of the College’s mission, and we congratulate them both on their well-deserved promotions.
Sincerely,
Linda A. Bell
Provost
Leslie N. Grinage
Dean of the College