Sally Garner, director of the Student Services Unit in the School of Journalism and Communication, recently received the Outstanding Academic Advising Administrator Award from NACADA, the Global Community for Academic Advising.
NACADA, an association with a membership of over 11,000, “honors individuals and institutions making significant contributions to the improvement of academic advising.” The group also selected Garner as its 2017 Region 8 Outstanding Advising Administrator.
Garner has worked at the University of Oregon for almost 17 years and has served as the journalism school’s student services director for seven. She is known campus and regionwide for her innovative integration of career and academic advising, leadership within the field and no-nonsense approach to supporting students.
Visual communications professor Julianne Newton, who has worked with Garner as a colleague and supervisor, notes that she has never “worked with an advisor as smart, caring, dedicated, innovative, solution-oriented or exceptional as Sally Garner.”
When asked about Garner’s leadership, her colleagues point to the closet space that she uses as her office. She claimed this space in the face of a space shortage to allow the other advisors on her team to have full offices.
Garner’s colleagues note that she excels as a mentor. “Sally is truly a role model in the field of academic advising,” said Rachel Allen, assistant director of student services. “She is passionate about student success, and she continually demonstrates this through her work with students.”
Garner also contributes to the campus as a whole. She has served on 15 search committees and seven additional campuswide committees. Within the Northwest region of NACADA, she served as the region chair and recently became a member of the Emerging Leaders Program Advisory Board after going through the program herself, first as a mentee, then as a mentor.
Garner will receive her Outstanding Academic Advising Administrator Award at the annual NACADA conference in St. Louis this October.
—Miranda Atkinson, Student Services, SOJC