Congratulations to the staff and faculty earning degrees this year.

Name: Melissa Villa
Department: Financial Aid and Scholarships
Current job title: Financial Aid Counselor
New degree earned this year: M.A. in Higher Education Administration and Leadership, Fresno State

Melissa's journey through her master's degree was full of accomplishments. In addition to maintaining a 4.0 GPA throughout the program, she is a Graduate Equity Fellow, was nominated for a dean's medalist award in both the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management and Kremen School of Education and Human Development (she was a finalist for Kremen!) and has served on the planning committee for the second annual Higher Education and Student Affairs in the Central Valley Conference. Our office couldn't be prouder of our colleague's accomplishments throughout her degree!

Name: Sandi Pugh
Department: Financial Aid and Scholarships
Current job title: Assistant Director
New degree earned this year: MBA, Fremont University

Sandi jumped into this accelerated program and earning a 4.0 GPA all while stepping into a new role as the assistant director during a wild year in financial aid. We are super proud of all her hard work in this program and on our team!

Name: Teira Wilson
Department: Office of Digital Accessibility - Technology Services
Current job title: Digital Accessibility Specialist
New degree earned this year: PsyD in Organizational Development

My journey to this degree was not easy. Six months prior to starting my path, I had my neck broken to remove a tumor from my spinal cord and my neck screwed back on straight, and then I changed jobs from Clovis Community College to Fresno State. In the last few weeks, while trying to complete my research and defend it, I also started training over 100 people in various departments and colleges on campus on digital document accessibility six times a week! I almost lost my voice a few times. Working here at Fresno State helped me achieve my goal. I did my research on web accessibility and I had wonderful people I could talk to about it and help keep me motivated. I am excited about what comes next. I was always in school, and now that I have done the maximum amount of school, it is time to put it to good use.

Campus News is celebrating our employee graduates over the next several weeks. There's still time to submit. Follow the format below and send to campusnews@csufresno.edu with a high-resolution photo.

Name:
Department:
Current job title:
New degree earned this year:
Include a few sentences about his/her journey to this degree.