Staff

Matthew, a native Connecticuter (some would say “Nutmegger”), is a problem-solving creative who loves collaborative efforts, healthy competition and finding ways to support and serve others.  Having spent time as a professional musician while leading a team of marketing and communications professionals, as well as a multimedia producer while serving former NFL players in their transition to life after football, Matthew has lived and continues to love the principles of design thinking and exploring wildly varied opportunities. He has guided teams in higher education through organizational change and experienced success developing brand identities across industries.  If Matthew could tell his college-self anything, he would encourage him to pay less attention to which doors are open and which are closed down the hallway, and more to the quality and direction of the immediate next step.

Connect with Matthew on Twitter: @matthewagolden

Keira (she/her) grew up in the Pennsylvania mountain town of Bellefonte, home to many governors and a spring that feeds the entire community. She attended Guilford College and later the University of North Carolina – Greensboro, where the city and its residents taught her the value of historical context and understanding where you are. You can often find her volunteering with community-led organizations connecting folks with their environment through free gardens, biking, and outdoor activities. As a celebration enthusiast, she love parades and holds memberships in community-based parades groups such as the Vaudevillians New Years Brigade and the Krewe of Red Beans hailing from New Orleans.

Find Me! Public Health Cohort Hours:

Tues 11-1PM at the PHS Building – 505 North Charles

Recommended Resources:

Designing Your Gap Year in 4 Easy Steps

Gap to Growth Guide (JHU) – Planning Your Gap Year

How to Get an Awesome Recommendation

Recent Courses:

Designing for Global Change (Intersession 2024)

Life Design Summer Institute (Summer 2022, 2023)

Intro to Hopkins: Arrive & Thrive (Fall 2022, 2023)

Becoming Your Biggest Changemaker- Developing a Socially Conscious Career in Science (Intersession 2022)

Find Me On the Internet:

Good Work with Keira (website)

5 Unexpected Skills Volunteer Service Adds to Your Career

Transformative Return for Communities (Quaker)

Sarah (she/her) serves as the Life Design Educator for students majoring in Applied Mathematics & Statistics, Civil & Systems Engineering, and Environmental Health & Engineering. She joined the Life Design Lab in September 2021 and has enjoyed supporting students as they explore their interests and pursue their passions and curiosities ever since.

As a Life Design Educator, Sarah has co-facilitated a variety of opportunities for students to build their networks and develop professional skills alongside her LDL & ILLD colleagues, including the DEI Collective, JobsForJays, Rapid Resume Reviews, alumni panels, networking events, mentorship programs, and the Tech & Entrepreneurship in the Bay Area Intersession Trek. She has also assisted various employers with on-campus recruiting efforts, and she helps students navigate and prepare for the job & internship search process.

Sarah earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY in 2014. As an undergrad, Sarah was a Resident Advisor and NCAA swimmer, and she conducted an undergraduate research thesis that explored the portrayal of female athletes in popular media and its impact on objectification behaviors within consumers who do and do not identify as athletes.

She earned her master’s degree in student affairs administration from Binghamton University in 2016 where she worked as a graduate assistant in the Dean of Students Office, interned in the Center for Civic Engagement, and conducted research about the university’s retention practices for the Division of Student Affairs. Before joining the LDL team, she worked in Residence Life at The University of Scranton and the Office of Student Engagement at Loyola University Maryland. Sarah also completed her master’s degree in emerging media from Loyola University Maryland in May 2022, where her capstone project focused on user experience and accessibility within mobile app design.

Her hobbies include reading, working out, walking around her neighborhood while listening to a podcast or audiobook, and trying new flavors of tea. Sarah is originally from upstate New York but is now proud to call Baltimore her home.

Recent Courses

Hopkins Engineering Sampler Seminar (Fall 2022, Fall 2023)

Tech & Entrepreneurship in the Bay Area (Intersession 2023)

Intro to Hopkins: Arrive & Thrive (Fall 2022)

Life Design Summer Institute (Summer 2022)

Paul (he/him) hails from Rockville, MD, but spent seven years in Wisconsin between attending University of Wisconsin-Madison to achieve his undergraduate degree in Economics and Environmental Studies, serving as an AmeriCorps volunteer with City Year, and going on to earn his Master’s degree in Urban Studies at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Helping students realize how personal and academic passions can be combined in creative ways reflects his own non-traditional career path and he enjoys creating pathways for individuals and organizations to connect with one another, specifically in the higher-ed environment. In his free time, Paul loves traveling, spending time with friends and family, and checking out parks and trails.

If Paul could tell his undergraduate self anything it would be that it is ok to pursue career opportunities that may not seem connected to your majors because there are so many opportunities out there!

Mike’s academic background is in urban and architectural theory, poverty and social inequality. In his spare time, he loves working on his Olympic lifting form and kettlebell routines. Before joining the Life Design Lab in fall 2019, Mike was faculty and an administrator at two liberal arts colleges in New England. He supported students interested in linking their academic pursuits with their internship goals. He is thrilled to be supporting First Year-FLI KSAS students and committed to redesigning undergraduate experiential learning via a social equity and inclusion framework. If Mike could tell his college-self anything, he would say to consider reframing aspirations and challenges, not as an individualistic and isolating experience, but as one that can be meaningfully supported by community and resources on campus and beyond.

Clifton (he/him) is a Black, cis-man that is spiritual, queer, and a first-gen, limited-income (FLI) college graduate raised as a proud East coaster. He attended 13 different schools in 5 states and the District of Columbia, spending most of his years in New Jersey. Clifton enjoys playing card and board games (especially spades), singing at church, and finding spots in Baltimore to sit and relax.

Clifton looks forward to helping students think about their identities and how they shape their life’s journey. After 5 years of helping student organization leaders here at Hopkins, he felt this role complimented his interest in giving back to some of his previous experience building affinity space for men of color while mentoring and advising students of varying identity groups. Clifton loves to discuss how all of your identities impact your life experience. If Clifton could tell his college self anything, he’d say be bold, be curious, and be you to the fullest.

Leading with curiosity and connection to create my best life.

GET TO KNOW ME:

• Areas of belonging you love thinking about?: I love helping folks think about who we are (identities, values, morals, and beliefs,) are assets in our life journey.
• Why did you join the Life Design Lab in 6 words or less?: I love the opportunity to have transformational experiences for myself and with students.
• What strong opinion do you have about something that others may differ from?: Pineapple definitely does go on pizza!

GET COACHING FROM CLIFTON

Virtual MOTIVATIONAL MONDAYS:

Get Motivated with LDE Clifton and a surprise. Sign up Today. We will just hear where students are and provide any reframe or motivation we can in the moment.

Some inspirational moments as a YouTube short.

CLIFTON’S COHORT HOURS – Tuesdays 3:30-5 pm

You can connect with Clifton during his Cohort Hours in the Homewood Apartments in the Center for Diversity and Inclusion in Suite 100! No Appointment is necessary or required.

Virtual SENIOR FRIDAYS

Sign up Today for March Senior Friday Chats.

MY STRENGTHS:

Woo | Achiever | Futuristic | Communication | Belief

Clifton is someone who will do what he can to connect with others to ensure he can feel a sense of community to work towards his and/or the individuals’ goals based on his beliefs and experiences. He will ensure that he is doing something that can be accomplished while imagining the possibilities.

RESOURCES:

• What is Life Design from Clifton’s Perspective – Interview about the Life Design Lab
• A first-gen story – Learn more about Clifton’s first-generation, limited-income college journey in his book chapter or in an interview (video) with the JHU FLI Network.
• Embrace Your Story – Engage in an asynchronous experience that helps you think about how you can Embrace Your Story. Sign up: https://forms.office.com/r/K8zTuy7gMW 
• #Design4Excellence on Handshake or #Design4Excellence in this blog post.
• Other SOAR team members to explore your co-curricular and identity-based life interests: Aiyana Hamilton, Andrea Wiseman, Antonio Boone, Chloe Terrell, Clifton E. Shambry Jr., and Dr. Stacey Mitchell, lead by our Sr. Director Dr. Ashley A. Adams.
  • More on SOAR: The Life Design Lab’s SOAR team is a department focusing on inclusion and equitable access to opportunities for students from underrepresented communities, including first-generation, low-income, multicultural, LGBTQ, and international students. Educators who work for SOAR—short for Seizing Opportunities, Access, and Relationships—will be embedded in co-curricular and student life offices on the Homewood campus, including athletics, FLI Network, first-year experience, student engagement, cohort programs, and diversity & inclusion.

My Office Hours for first-year students are:                                                                                                                            Mondays from 11am-1pm in the AMR I Reading Room (in addition to Imagine Center drop-in hours Tuesdays 3-5pm and Wednesdays 1-3pm)

Andrea has completed 3 marathons and a half-Ironman, knows all the free/cheap activities in Baltimore with tiny humans, has traveled to 30 states and 30 countries, is a Boston sports fan and is a first year host parent to a high school student from Germany.

Andrea has worked for Semester at Sea, taught English abroad and has worked with college students since 2002. Andrea has spent the last 13 years working with Hopkins freshmen and student leaders in leadership development, project management, communication skills and life decision-making. She is excited to continue challenging students to use their skills, experiences and interests to pursue their dreams.

If Andrea could tell her college-self anything, she would say to think outside the box and don’t do only what you were told you “should” be doing.

Emily is a native Upstate New Yorker, an outdoor enthusiast, and an animal lover with three rescues of her own. As a JHU alum, she understands firsthand how challenging and busy a Hopkins undergrad career can be, but promises you that time spent on Life Design is not wasted time. Emily has worked at JHU in the career services and life design space for the past 7 years, and currently serves as the lead for employers, alums, and hiring partners in the finance and consulting industries.

Leah is a cancer biologist, mentor and a big foodie. Ask her about the best brunch spots in town! Prior to joining JHU, Leah was a cancer research scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where she did her postdoctoral. Outside of conducting research, Leah realized that she had a niche for building relationships and connecting students and postdocs to opportunities as they navigate through their respective career paths. The fulfillment that came from this, led to Leah making an audacious and rewarding career change to join the Life Design Lab. If Leah could tell her college-self anything, she would say that comparison is the biggest thief of joy. Focus on your own journey and embrace your failures. You’re doing better than you think you are.

Mark is a native upstate New Yorker who has many years of experience assisting engineering students with career issues at Cornell and JHU. He has visited many employer sites representing various technical industries and participated in training employer recruitment teams. Accordingly, he loves to travel, make new industry connections and learning the interesting stories that define our master’s students. Those stories are great inroads to starting your Life Design initiatives. Previously an English major in college and now working with engineers, Mark enjoys editing content, whether drafting articles for publication or supporting students to perfect their job search materials. He is also a published co-author of an online textbook for a career course he co-developed for the State University of New York System. Mark would tell his college-self to be more open to new experiences, to make more real-world connections, and to not fear the life-after-college journey.

Hailing from Elkhart, Indiana, Sonjala loves bringing people together, water aerobics, and her friendly poodle, Midnight! Sonjala works to connect students to opportunities that enhance and broaden their skills. She also works with employers to help connect them to the top notch talent at JHU! Sonjala’s path has been a lesson itself in Life Design and she loves being able to combine all the skills and experiences she gathered to help others find their life’s purpose!

Sonjala holds a M.S from Indiana State University in Student Affairs and Higher Education and a B.A. from Purdue University in Sociology with a teaching certification in Secondary Sociology, Psychology and History. Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins, Sonjala served as an Assistant director in the Career and Professional Development Center at Carnegie Mellon for 15 years. Before CMU, she worked as an Assistant Director in the Career Center at Indiana State. If Sonjala could tell her college-self anything, she would say to invest in yourself. Keep your eyes open, be curious, take risks, explore and experience life!

Current CV

Justin Lorts is an historian, teacher, university administrator, and Life Design Educator with over 20 years of experience in higher education. He is currently the Senior Director of Undergraduate Education at the Johns Hopkins University Life Design Lab. In this role, he works with educators across Hopkins to support undergraduate students in their career and life pursuits and connect them to alumni, employers, and experiential learning opportunities. 

Prior to joining Hopkins, Justin worked in several roles in academic affairs and advising at The Gallatin School of Individualized Study and the College of Arts and Science at New York University and at Princeton University, where he served as the Director of Studies at Whitman College. He has directed and designed programs and initiatives to educate and support students from pre-college through doctoral study. He has extensive experience working with first-generation and limited income (FLI) college students, including serving as program adviser to NYU’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholars Program and as a member of Princeton’s Presidential Working Group on Undergraduate Socioeconomic Diversity. 

Justin earned a BA in History from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in History from Rutgers University, New Brunswick. His academic training was focused in the areas of African American History and 20th Century United States Political and Cultural History.  His dissertation, Black Laugher / Black Protest: civil rights, respectability, and the cultural politics of African American comedy, 1934-1968 explores the relationship between comedy and the modern civil rights movement. He has taught courses on race, popular culture, and civil rights at Rutgers, New York, and Princeton University, and was an NEH Fellow at Harvard University’s W.E.B. DuBois Research Institute in 2008.  

More recently, Justin’s teaching and research activities have focused on design thinking, career pathways in the humanities, and the relationship between Life Design and a liberal arts education. As a past participant of the Stanford Life Design Studio and a Life Design Ambassador for Johns Hopkins, he regularly leads Life Design workshops and training for students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni. He teaches career and Life Design courses at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown University and has delivered talks and workshops for institutions and organizations including Rutgers University, the American Society for Cell Biology, and the Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium.  You can see more of his work on design thinking and higher education on his website, Education*Designed.  

Justin is a proud resident of Charles Village, where he lives with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he enjoys learning about and making coffee, serving as a leader for the local Cub Scout Pack, and exploring the city.  

RECENT COURSES: 

Finding Your “Why” in Medicine (Intersession 2021) 

Intro to Hopkins: Arrive and Thrive (Fall 2020 and 2021) 

SELECT WRITINGS: 

Performing a Premortem on Your Current Life Path 

Six Benefits of Using Miro in the Classroom (and One Drawback) 

How PhDs Can Use Life Design to Build a Fulfilling Life and Career (Part I) 

“Hollywood, the NAACP, and the Cultural Politics of the Early Civil Rights Movement” in Danielle McGuire and John Dittmer, eds., Freedom Rights: New Perspectives on the Civil Rights Movement (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2011):  39-69. 

SELECT RESOURCES: 

Life Design Resources for Students Interested in Graduate School (esp. in the Humanities) 

Nadine has recently returned from a year spent studying Jewish Studies and Biblical Hebrew abroad, and is glad to be reunited with both the Hopkins community and American-style drip coffee. With an undergraduate degree in Psychology and an M.S.Ed. in Higher Education, Nadine has supported students across a variety of disciplines, but particularly enjoys working with her current cohort because there’s no one typical path for a Humanities major to take after graduation. She aspires to help her students see the open-endedness not as a source of confusion, but as an exciting invitation to explore and follow their curiosity. If Nadine could tell her college self anything, she would say that no matter how hard you try, you’re not going to find career direction just by thinking about it; the sooner you get out there and start trying things on for size, the sooner you’ll discover what fits.

Tessa, a proud Pittsburgher at heart, can likely be found in a local coffee shop, knitting, reading and connecting with new friends regarding topics including wellness, social justice and faith. She is a strong proponent of Life Design because she loves to speak with people about life as a non-linear journey. Fortunate to have gotten her start in refugee resettlement with AmeriCorps, Tessa has worked in immigrant advocacy and nonprofit capacity building. She has ultimately channeled those skills into empowering the change-makers of tomorrow. If Tessa could tell her college-self anything, she would say don’t be afraid to make mistakes. There’s no syllabus to life, so try things out and trust that your mess, will be a big part of the message you share with the world. Also, date Tim McKenzie when he asks you out the first time.

Karen is obsessed with all things pop culture and, as a proud Buffalonian, is a big fan of sponge candy. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Theater and has earned a Master’s degree in Emerging Media, which she has cultivated an eclectic and diverse professional background.

Her journey into higher education revealed her true calling – a passion for energizing students by providing them with the essential networks, tools, and confidence needed to navigate their own life paths. If Karen had the chance to offer advice to her college-era self, she would encourage herself to absorb knowledge from every source, engage in a wide range of activities, converse with a variety of people, and embrace new experiences. She firmly believes that each aspect of this life journey contributes significantly to personal growth and development.

Focus: all financial processing and measures within the Life Design Lab. Supports staff as they work across departments and schools to provide the best services for students.

First Job: Cold Stone Creamery

Favorite: Grown Ups, Grown Ups 2, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Vegas Vacation

Huge Nerd: A/V, mainly Audio Engineering

Background: Darryl has worked at JHU since 2011, starting in the Levering Student Life Office as an Administrative Assistant. He most recently worked at the budget specialist in the Department of German & Romance Languages & Literatures. He was born and raised in Baltimore and enjoys spending time with family and friends.

Ciara is a bona fide Marylander who loves crab legs and judges anyone who doesn’t – including her amazing husband, whom she has traveled the world with (eight countries and counting)! Before joining JHU, Ciara facilitated workforce development training for 14 to 24-year olds. Though her previous charges were different from JHU students, the pressure they felt to succeed is similar. If Ciara could tell her college-self anything, she would say not to let fear limit you. You are braver, stronger, and more resilient than you can ever imagine.

Kara Hunter (she/her) is dedicated collegiate student development, and it is evident in her almost a decade of experience in the field. While her path to the Life Design Lab was not linear, it most definitely has given her a unique perspective on Life Design and augments the importance of staying curious and trying new things. Kara spends time fostering relationships with employers and providing opportunities for students to build their professional networks.

Kara has spent time all over the East Coast, but now calls Baltimore home. Prior to accepting a position with Integrated Learning and Life Design in January 2022, Kara most recently served as the Assistant Director of Competitive Sports at Loyola University Maryland. During her tenure at Loyola, she oversaw 28 club sports teams with over 500 student athletes, as well as a robust intramural sports program that served over 1800 students. In addition, Kara served as an instructor for a first-year seminar course from 2019-2022. She also spent two years at NC State University as a Resident Director for Upperclassman and Graduate Housing, managing a staff of 20 Resident Assistants and over 1100 residents.

Kara’s educational career has mirrored her professional career, most recently with a Master of Business Administration, ‘21 from Loyola University Maryland. Prior to moving to the Mid-Atlantic, she pursued a Master of Education in Higher Education Administration, ’17 from NC State University, as well as a Bachelor of Science studying Counseling Psychology, ‘15 from The Ohio State University.

Most recently, Kara’s teaching and programming has focused on transitioning skills from the classroom to industry. She serves as a Co-Director for the Your Turn to Intern (YTTI) program, helping students navigate their internship search through monthly workshops covering topics that range from identifying one’s values in an internship experience to interviewing and negotiating salaries to getting the most out of one’s summer internship. She has also taught two Intersession Courses that help students understand their strengths and transitioning them professional careers.

Outside of her professional career at Hopkins, Kara is a big sports fanatic and loves to travel around the country visiting various professional sports venues. She is also committed to traveling somewhere new every year and is looking forward to crossing more destinations off her list in the coming years.

Recent Courses:

It’s not too late to secure a Summer Internship (Intersession 2023)

Careers in Biotech and Medical Device Course and Trek (Intersession 2023)

Networking Resources

OneHop

Industry-Specific Employers

Engineering and Manufacturing Careers 

Biotech, Medical Device, and Pharmaceuticals Careers 

Aerospace and Automotive Careers

Oil, Gas, and Renewable Energy Careers

Industry Internships

Kelly is an avid reader and crafter who enjoys spending time with her old pug, Dover, and her kitten, Bandit. She is passionate about civic engagement, history, and trivia. She became interested in working in higher education after falling in love with her student job at UMBC, and she absolutely loves working with the JHU community. If Kelly could tell her college self anything, she would tell her that it is okay to take a non-traditional path towards her future goals.

Lauren is a scholar, a writer, and a mother to one human (Robbie) and one fur (Rocky) child. She holds a Ph.D. in German and Romance Languages from Johns Hopkins as well as dual masters’ degrees from George Washington (International Affairs) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (Comparative Literature). Having worked in a variety of fields from financial services to academia, Lauren is passionately committed to helping students from all walks of life transition classroom knowledge and training to professional environments. Lauren credits extensive experiential learning opportunities–internships, study abroad, model UN, and academic simulations–with giving her the skills and opportunities to link students to global careers. If Lauren could tell her college-self anything, it would be to pay attention to which activities recharge you which don’t. When professional and personal paths get windy (and the most interesting ones always will!), that quiet knowing will always help you make the best decision.

Ashley Schantz is teacher, university administrator, and Life Design Educator with over a decade of experience in mental health and higher education. She is currently a Senior Assistant Director of Undergraduate Education at the Johns Hopkins University Life Design Lab. In this capacity, she works with educators to support students studying Brain Sciences & Environmental Sciences in their professional, academic, and life pursuits, connecting them with alumni, employers, and experiential opportunities.

Prior to her work in Life Design, Ashley served as the Assistant Director of Transition and Discernment Programs at Loyola University Maryland, where she constructed meaningful engagement opportunities for students to developed more self-actualized life pathways and foster a sense of belonging amongst a diverse population. She has directed co-curricular learning programs and initiatives designed to encourage students to capitalize on and make meaning of their academic pursuits for students throughout each undergraduate transition, including directing orientation and peer mentor initiatives at the University of Saint Francis and the Life After Loyola docuseries for graduating seniors.

Ashley earned a BA in Psychology from Bowling Green State University, a MS in Clinical Psychology from the University of Dayton, and a MA in College Student Personnel from Western Illinois University. Her combined academic training centers in personal development and self-authorship. Her master’s thesis, Betrayal characteristics and self-forgiveness: The mediating and moderating roles of social-cognitive variables, examined the impact of self-empathy, rumination, and attributions on one’s ability to self-forgive across various transgression severity levels and relational dynamics. She has taught courses on topics related to the college transition, senior seminars, and positive psychology.

More recently, Ashley’s teaching and programming have focused on Life/Design Thinking, career pathways in psychology, brain sciences, & environmental sciences, and the intersection of discernment practices to promote self-actualization and the self-authored life design.

Ashley is an outdoor enthusiast with a hunger to learn strategies to live in better harmony with the earth and our communities. She is a new student to meditation and somatic mindfulness practices.

Recent Courses:

Life Design Summer Institute (Summer 2022)

Intro to Hopkins: Arrive & Thrive (Fall 2022)

Environmental Science Senior Seminar (Fall 2022)

Networking Resources

Authentic Introduction Guide

Guide to Curiosity Conversations

Brain Science Resources

Neuroscience Employers & American Neurological Association Career Center

Psychology Employers & American Psychological Association Career Guide

Cognitive Science Employers

Environmental Science Resources

Environmental Students Employers

Earth Science Employers

National Association of Environmental Professionals Career Center

Sue is an experienced Recruiter, Career Advisor, and Job Search Instructor with an undergrad from Clark University in International Relations and an MBA from the University of Michigan. She started her recruiting career with PepsiCo’s Quaker, Tropicana, and Gatorade business, and Wrigley in Chicago. In 2010, she moved to Vermont where she was the career advisor for the undergraduate business school at the University of Vermont. For the last 10 years, Sue has been recruiting for great companies like Seventh Generation, Darn Tough, and VEIC/DCSEU, teaching job search skills, and career advising. Sue has been with JHU supporting AAP students since March 2020.

JHU’s Advanced Academic Programs (AAP) division offers professional graduate degree and certificate programs for adults seeking flexibility, career advancement, and personal enrichment.

Lauren has found that her life’s purpose orbits around a few central concepts: exploring the wilderness, helping others, creative expression through writing and persistent curiosity. In her role as a Life Design Educator, she has explored the broad, dynamic field of public health and all of the possibilities it holds for her students. Lauren’s background in outdoor education, counseling, emerging media and neurodiversity have helped her cultivate a unique relationship with the Public Health Studies Undergraduate Advising Program. Additionally, her highly collaborative nature drives her to pursue interesting methods of connecting people, places and ideas. If Lauren could tell her college-self anything, she’d say that the path is far from linear. In fact, a winding pathway full of unexpected insights and remarkable views makes a much more exciting adventure to take.

Aiyana (she/her) is originally from Cleveland, OH and worked at Cleveland State University prior to joining Johns Hopkins University. She holds a B.S. in Healthcare Administration from Eastern Michigan University and M.S.Ed. in Higher Education Administration from Northern Illinois University and she is active in many organizations, such as, NASPA, National Black MBA Association and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Aiyana is excited to join the LDL team and be part of an ecosystem that will support students as they navigate their collegiate journey and help students achieve their personal and professional aspirations. If there is one thing she would tell her undergraduate self, she would encourage her to take time choosing a major.

Fun Facts: Aiyana loves to play volleyball, enjoys the arts, attend concerts, play boardgames (Taboo, Bingo, Scrabble, Monopoly, etc.) travel, and is a foodie!

Chloe (she/her) was born in Southern California and grew up in North Texas. She did her undergrad at Texas Woman’s University where she majored in Psychology, and completed her Master’s in Higher Education, Student Affairs at the University of North Texas. She moved to Maryland in 2018 to start her career at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as the Transfer Student Success Coordinator where she created a mentor program for new transfer students.

Chloe is an avid runner, and has done a handful of half-marathons. She is also in A Tribe Called Run, a Baltimore-based run club. She loves hiking with her corgi, Ramsay, travelling, and exploring the East Coast. If Chloe could tell her undergraduate-self anything it would be that grasping the material and really learning it is more important than getting straight A’s. She is very excited to help students along their own life paths.

Fun Facts: Chloe is a part-time Trivia Host, has 12 tattoos and is a BIG Taylor Swift fan (#Swifties)

Current CV

An Ohio-born native of New Jersey, Heather followed her love of books to a PhD at Boston College and her first tenure-track professorship in Macon, Georgia, where she co-created a writers conference, a night-time 5k race, and a baby girl. Prior to joining the Life Design Team at Johns Hopkins, Heather was awarded tenure at two universities and taught literature, writing, and experiential learning courses for over a decade.

Her interest in human-centered design began at Stanford’s d. school, where she applied design thinking principles to tackle complex problems such as building an escape room for a tenth grade English class; investigating social isolation alongside colleagues in Palo Alto and Trinidad; and assisting doctoral students to foster supportive communities and creativity in their research. Upon returning to the University of Akron, she created curriculum and led learning experiences for populations on and off campus, from  “Design Your Life” courses for underclassmen to a pilot program for incoming freshmen to human-centered design workshops for local women leaders, graduate students, and Brazilian business professionals.

If Heather could tell her college-self anything, it would be to stay open to the possibility of surprise. My love of storytelling began in the classroom but led me to a career helping students with their lives beyond it. We are constantly learning about ourselves and our strengths as well as our weaknesses. Reach out to people who have lives and careers that intrigue you. It is never too late to try something new.

My cohort hours are Tuesdays from 11-2pm. Please email me to set up an appointment.
My weekly drop-in hours at the Imagine Center on Thursdays from 1-3pm.

Dr. Mason is the Life Design Educator for the Humanities Department. He is a practicing artist that has earned a BA in film from Howard University, MFA in photography from SCAD and an Ed.D. in art education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to coming to Hopkins, Eric taught digital photography (intro and advanced), digital media courses and managed a maker space. His varied career path gives him a broad perspective. He looks forward to working with humanities students and providing them with tools to explore their respective experiences and design a path that fits them.