Bran Alves-Morgan brings experience in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as new Advising Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences and the Latinx Student Success Office

Third-generation educator Bran Alves-Morgan (he/they, él/elle) smiled through Zoom, articulating how his passion for learning and educating lives vicariously through him. Alves-Morgan knew they wanted to be in student services for a while, especially after spending time outside the US in Spain. Since June, he recently took a position as Advising Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences; they're also stepping in to advise the Latinx Student Success Office (LSSO), filling Dean Juliette Corazón's responsibilities at LSSO as she begins to retire. 

Alves-Morgan is a Diversity Equity & Inclusion professional (DEI, trained in creating spaces where people feel safe, protected, and seen) that brings years of experience to the table. They attended Randolph College (formerly known as Randolph-Macon Woman's College), a small liberal arts college in Virginia, where he majored in Spanish. Traveling abroad to Spain after college, he and his partner opened the largest adult English language school in the country's northwest region, serving more than 1400 students annually. While in Spain, he also worked on a program called ¡Salie Adelante! The goal was to pair up with parents of children in middle school. Alves-Morgan "like[s] to give people the skills to be autonomous.

Upon his return to the US from Spain, he served as Coordinator & Manager of English Language Learning at a community college in the midwest, working with English language learners from five continents, including undocumented/DACAmented individuals, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, racial minorities, neurodivergent individuals, and persons with disabilities. Alves-Morgan also holds a Master in Higher Education Administration from Georgetown University and a double Master in Applied Linguistics in teaching Spanish/English as a Foreign Language. He also has two certificates in DEI from the University of South Florida Muma College of Business, including a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace Certificate and an Inclusive and Ethical Leadership Certificate.

Growing up in the deep south, specifically Auburn, Alabama, they were no strangers to being outcast as different, something that inspired their career aspirations. He attended an all-white Christian school as the one openly gay student who was voted "most unique" alongside another marginalized student. They acknowledge how everyone, not just certain people, has their own "unique social identities" and look forward to being the advocate he never had. An example of advocacy was when he advocated for undocumented students to get more information about obtaining a Real ID so they can travel back home because of new airline identification rules by contacting other coworkers in advocacy positions.

From equipping educators with the tools to teach ESL to coach them into obtaining fantastic job opportunities all around the world to guiding undocumented students with the correct info to get home, Alves-Morgan is looking forward to "the people" he will meet in this job, alongside being an advocate for students; "You're able to get things done, make a change, and uplift [people]." Such reflects what he would tell his younger self; from a queer perspective, he would emphasize how "it gets better. You're growing up in Alabama. Get out as soon as you can because [people like you] exist." Perspective is an essential tool they've gained throughout their personal and career aspirations; people come from all sorts of different cultures, and there are places for people to come together, just like at Cornell and within the Latinx Student Success Office.

 

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