USU appoints new education director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 

*Audio clip is the voice of USU’s new DEI director, Charity Maeda Van den Akker.

**Editor’s note: Story was updated on Nov. 3 at 2:21pm.

Charity Maeda Van den Akker’s desk is decorated with awards—but it’s not the glass trophies or even the gavel sitting on her desk that she talks about. 

What she’s really proud of is her new position as director of Utah State University’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or DEI, her time at USU as a first-generation scholar, and her leadership experiences as a woman of color. 

The DEI division was created in July when Dr. Jane Irungu was appointed as the USU DEI vice president. 

On Oct. 24, Maeda Van den Akker was appointed director of the division. She will coordinate educational programs that will provide the campus with information on inclusive practices. 

“We talk a lot about restorative leadership, and she is the definition of restorative,” Karla Sandoval Rodriguez, Aggie First Scholars Student Program Coordinator said. 

In her undergraduate studies, Maeda Van den Akker said she worked to be as involved as possible, majoring in interdisciplinary studies and learning the interconnectedness of education. She also worked in residence life as a residence assistant. 

“(Being involved) helped me really build a vocabulary and a language to better advocate for myself as a person and for my family,” she said. 

After Maeda Van den Akker graduated, she got her master’s in higher education administration at Southern New Hampshire University. She then took a position at USU as a Retention Programs Coordinator from July 2020 until she began her position as DEI director. 

One of her favorite parts as a coordinator was working with students. 

“What I really love about working in student retention is helping students build self efficacy, self advocacy, and know how to navigate higher education so that their strengths can really shine through,” Maeda Van den Akker said. 

Maeda Van den Akker said her experience as a first-generation college student herself influenced her work in the student retention office—particularly as she partnered with the Aggie First Scholars Program. 

“I grew up in a single-parent household raised by grandparents for half of my life. And education has always been something that’s really important to my mom, in particular,” Maeda Van den Akker said. 

At the start of her first semester at USU, Maeda Van den Akker said her mom helped her stay in college when she wanted to leave. 

“I called my mom, and I said, ‘I don’t know if I’m cut out for college.’ I was having a lot of imposter feelings. And she told me, ‘You’re smart enough, you’re committed enough, and you’re going to do great things,’” Maeda Van den Akker said.  

Now, Maeda Van den Akker inspires confidence in the first-generation students she works with, according to Sandoval Rodriguez. 

Having been a first-generation college student herself, Sandoval Rodriguez was a scholar in the program her first year, a peer mentor her second, and worked with Maeda Van den Akker as a student coordinator her third. 

Sandoval Rodriguez said working with Maeda Van den Akker has empowered her as a woman of color in leadership.

“Growing up and being in leadership here has always been hard for me since I’m a minority and I’ve never really had anybody to express those feelings with. Charity took me under her wing. She’s really helped me gain confidence in myself,” Sandoval Rodriguez said.

Isaiah Jones, one of Maeda Van den Akker’s coworkers and USU’s parent program coordinator, said she helped first-generation students by showing support to their entire families. 

Jones and Maeda Van den Akker put together a USU family handbook for first-generation students, which would help students, parents and family members know how to best offer and receive academic support. 

“She would go over everything from supplemental instruction to first-generation programs to academic support coaches, student concern forms, really everything that a family member or parent or delegate, someone in their circle, would know that would help a student,” Jones said.  

Maeda Van den Akker’s coworker, Stacie Denetsosie, said student retention has significantly increased since Maeda Van den Akker has been a program coordinator. 

Denetsosie, USU’s program coordinator for Transition and International Orientation, said Maeda Van den Akker has had a significant influence on her life as well. 

Her first conversation with Maeda Van den Akker lasted for three hours. Since then, Denetsosie said they have worked together as close colleagues and friends. 

As an Indigenous professional on campus, Denetsosie appreciates Van Den Akker’s warm demeanor and professionalism.

“She helped teach me how to create systems where I can educate and create allies rather than create an audience that I’m just speaking to. She gave me some options and some systems that I could show people how I prefer to receive allyship,” Denetsosie said. 

To discuss ways to better the campus, Maeda Van den Akker organized a weekly lunch program where she, Denetsosie, and other program coordinators would meet for lunch and discuss ways to provide more inclusivity on campus. 

One of Maeda Van den Akker’s main plans for the DEI division is to provide more DEI education, training and to create further understanding of the two. 

“I think we need both to happen for us to continue to build a more inclusive campus,” Maeda Van den Akker said. 

Building an inclusive campus, however, is not an overnight process, but Maeda Van den Akker said she is willing and ready to help USU become more accepting, one individual at a time.

“One of the biggest things I tell every person, all my students, is that inclusion actually takes time and commitment, and it takes patience. Because open mindedness, change, and inclusion, all of which are efforts that are good,” Maeda Van den Akker said. “All good things take devoted time.”

-Jenny.Carpenter@usu.edu

Featured photo from Utah State Today