Hello, and thanks for dropping by! My name is Jamil and I am the Associate Director for Student Life at the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University, biologist, educator and a person. I recently graduated from Louisiana State University (Geaux Tigers!) with a degree in higher education administration. The program at LSU was exciting because what I learned assists me as I work with students in my current position and aids me as I help them succeed and get the most from their student experience. I intend to return to my biological roots in the future and work in the field, but I also do not know what the future will bring. I am also an adjunct and online instructor of biology at Georgia Military College and am on the faculty at Ivy Tech Community College here in Bloomington and Indianapolis. I was a graduate teaching and research assistant while I attended Auburn and Jacksonville State, respectively. Now that my most recent program has ended, I intend to use my acquired skills and education so that I may continue to support and develop college students.

I completed an undergraduate degree in the spring of 2010 at Jacksonville State University (Go Gamecocks!) in Jacksonville, Alabama. My research focus was on the stress physiology of Salvinia minima, a free-floating water plant. Next, I completed a graduate degree in marine zoology, also at Jacksonville State. I worked under the late Dr. Frank A. Romano III and Dr. Robert Carter. My graduate work and thesis on marine benthic community ecology, entitled "Meiofauna Community Structure of the Northern Gulf of Mexico", was completed in the summer of 2013, having worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) from 2009 to 2011. In 2016, I graduated from Auburn University (War Eagle!) with a graduate degree in Education, helping to lay a foundation in student affairs. I worked on an academic project (see ‘research’ tab) that sought to expand access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) lessons into some of the more underserved and underrepresented grade schools in the state of Alabama. Additionally, I helped lead a professional development workshop held on campus for science teachers to train them on how to instruct these new lessons, which were inquiry-based and hands on in nature. I also tutored student-athletes at the Lowder Student Athlete Development Center and instructed various laboratory courses within the College of Science and Mathematics (COSAM) while completing my degree program.

I am very excited about my current dive into collegiate student services. Particularly, I am working with students in a direct capacity, helping them to manage student organizations, approving their events, leading their leadership trainings, overseeing and allocating the School’s student activity budget, academically advising and serving as a hub that connects the other varied aspects of the student experience. Research has demonstrated that providing individualized support that engages students in the development of critical thinking, autonomous decision making and organizational skills needed by today’s learner, coupled with enhanced interaction with college staff, works to improve efficacy, retention and graduation rates. Additionally, being a biologist, I take a personal interest in students who are attracted to majors in the STEM fields, specifically those students that identify from traditionally underrepresented populations who wish to study the natural sciences. Recent data from the National Science Foundation indicates that while gains have been made, roughly only 10% of STEM undergraduate degrees are held by members from underrepresented groups. These students can benefit from the support that educators, administrators and advisors who adhere to an educationally inclusive perspective provide, and better representation in the STEM fields can occur as a result. This prevailing approach to education is one that I seek bring to my current position as the Associate Director for Student Life at Maurer, and as an instructor.

In my nonexistent free time I like to expand and play my drum kit, obsess over the countless JSU, AU and LSU national championship sports teams and flip through the many, many photos that I have taken of my sweet girl, Ringo.