Letter from the Chair

Dear OU Professional Advisers and the OU Community,

As we start another academic year, I wanted to take the time to introduce myself and talk a bit about our advising community. My name is Nancy Osmialowski and I’m an Academic Adviser in the School of Health Sciences (SHS). I’ve been with SHS since August 2015. This year I also am proud to be serving as the chair of the Professional Advisers Council (PAC).

Our professional advisers on campus spend countless hours working with and caring for our students. Particularly through the last few years, advisers have handled a constantly shifting environment and increasing responsibilities while maintaining unwavering commitment to student success. We support our students as they deal with everything from small scheduling issues to massive life events. One of my biggest priorities for this year is to ensure that PAC continues to be a place where we can support each other as well. Adviser well-being is a critical topic for us to address if we hope to retain our amazing advisers. We devote so much of ourselves to our students and my goal this year is that we’ll take some time to provide collective care for each other as well. 

As we adapt to whatever comes our way this fall semester, I also plan to work with our incredible PAC Executive Board to continue to make PAC a place where advisers can connect, share ideas, and build community across academic units. One of our strongest assets as a group is that our advisers come from so many different backgrounds, both in terms of identities we hold and in terms of academic backgrounds. All of us bring distinct perspectives to the table and I hope PAC can be an environment where we are open to sharing creative ideas to make OU a better place both for students and for advisers. 

PAC is a uniquely supportive organization, so as we continue to build an inclusive space, we welcome your comments, feedback, and ideas. If you’re ever interested in presenting at a meeting or sharing with our members, email us at [email protected]. 

I look forward to a great year with all of you! 

Sincerely,
Nancy Osmialowski