The couple received a call and were told that hotel security had just witnessed two men breaking into the U-Haul and driving away with her car attached to the back.

“It was a surreal feeling, how suddenly everything had become so completely wrong,” she said. “I kept thinking of things we had, and then remembering that they were gone. Our brains honestly couldn’t handle the enormity of what we had lost—essentially our entire home taken away in a truck.”

The U-Haul was found the next day. Most of her furniture was destroyed, and everything of value was gone, including family heirlooms and musical instruments. All of her clothes were taken as well. Her car was stripped, abandoned and taken to an impound lot. Crowell is still working on having the car auctioned off in Albuquerque.

But even as things looked bleak, the Fresno State community responded to her plight.

Amber Crowell and her husband, Zach

“I reached out to people in the academic community on Facebook, simply asking for advice on how to get past this,” she said. “What culminated from that was word spreading to people at Fresno State.”

While Crowell was in Albuquerque dealing with police, hotels, impound lots, insurance, rental car agencies and U-Haul, the Fresno State community was gathering to support her.

Soon, a full effort had spread all over social media. Larissa Mercado-Lopez in Women’s Studies, Cristina Herrera in Chicano and Latin American Studies and Rosa Toro in Psychology mobilized the Fresno State community by starting the GoFundMe page.

Crowell was contacted by Dean Michelle DenBeste in the College of Social Sciences, who offered all of her support on behalf of herself and the administration. Crowell also received support from her new colleagues in Sociology.

“People from all over Fresno were reaching out to us. It was amazing to see the Fresno State community come together and help a new faculty member in need, and to see how their efforts connected with that of our own families and friends. We were even being contacted by people in Albuquerque who were connected to people here in Fresno and wanted to help locally. It was truly incredible.”

“We really recovered through the support that we received,” she said. “We were able to replace essential items that we had lost and we were able to set up our home in the time that I had before the semester began. That was so important because I was able to get back to focusing on preparing to start my new position.”

Crowell said she was attracted to Fresno State by its collegiality and supportive intellectual environment in the Sociology Department.

“I also had a sense that the students were eager to learn and that they were very involved in ways of applying their knowledge, both in research and service. Student engagement is always a great indicator for a university.”

An assistant professor, Crowell is teaching Quantitative Research Methods in Sociology, and Sociology of Race and Ethnicity this semester. She is enjoying intellectual engagement with faculty and students.

She is a collaborator with the Liberal Studies program; Liberal Studies students take her Sociology of Race and Ethnicity course when entering the teacher credential program.

In addition, she is working on journal manuscripts developed out of her dissertation, as well as beginning a manuscript for a co-authored book in her area of research, residential segregation and inequality.

Crowell has a Ph.D. in Sociology and an M.S. in Sociology from Texas A&M University and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a Mathematics minor from Texas A&M University-Commerce.

When she is not in the classroom, Crowell enjoys exploring the outdoors with her husband. “We’ve already been to Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks. Hopefully soon we will also visit the coast. Hiking wasn’t much of an option in Texas, but I’m hoping to make it a hobby here.”