Brittney Roden
University of Michigan - Associate Director for Academic Connections, Residence Education
Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
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Brittney is a proud first-generation college graduate and serves as the Associate Director for Academic Connections at the University of Michigan. She holds two Master's degrees: Cultural Studies from Dartmouth College & Higher Education Administration from Tiffin University. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Spanish Education from Malone University. With over a decade of experience in Student Affairs and K-12 Education, Brittney has a proven track record of fostering student success. She has effectively managed various residential communities and developed innovative living-learning programs that enhance the student experience. Passionate about inclusivity and student development, Brittney is dedicated to empowering students and colleagues from diverse backgrounds and utilizes authentic storytelling to create a sense of belonging within the campus community.
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Working in the Pause: Supervision, Autonomy, and Fit in ResEd
Residence education increasingly operates within cultures of pause shaped by risk management, institutional complexity, and shared governance. Pausing can serve important purposes: it allows for multiple perspectives, ensures consistency, distributes responsibility, and protects individuals from bearing the full weight of institutional reaction. Drafting communications collaboratively, seeking approvals, and slowing decisions can be acts of care—not just control.
At the same time, extended or unexplained pause can feel disempowering, confusing, or misaligned with professional goals—particularly for live-in staff and those navigating early or transitional career stages. This interactive session explores how supervisors can name the value of pause while being honest about its impact, share appropriate context across uneven information landscapes, and support staff autonomy and morale. Participants will engage in structured small-group dialogue focused on supervision strategies that foster trust, clarity, and growth, including recognizing when a role or environment may no longer be the right fit.
Roundtable: Lessons from the Big Ten—Living-Learning Communities in Practice
Living-Learning Communities (LLCs) play a significant role in supporting student belonging, engagement, and learning across large, complex institutions. This interactive roundtable centers participant experience and peer-to-peer dialogue, bringing together higher education professionals from Big Ten universities and beyond to share lived experiences designing, leading, and sustaining Living-Learning Communities within large, research-intensive campus environments.
Rather than highlighting a single model or positioning facilitators as the primary source of expertise, this session prioritizes participant discussion of LLC practices across campuses, with facilitators offering brief contextual examples to frame conversation. LLC approaches vary widely based on institutional scale, resources, and student populations, and this roundtable is designed to surface that variation as a strength for shared learning.
Living-Learning Communities (LLCs) are a high-impact practice used across institutions to strengthen student belonging, engagement, and academic connection within increasingly complex residential environments. As campuses continue to navigate scaling challenges, resource variation, and evolving student needs, there is growing value in shared learning across institutional contexts.
This interactive roundtable centers participant experience and peer-to-peer exchange among higher education professionals from Big Ten institutions and beyond. Rather than highlighting a single model, the session surfaces varied approaches to LLC design, implementation, and sustainability shaped by institutional context, scale, and resources.
Facilitators offer brief framing examples to situate discussion, but the majority of the session is participant-driven. Attendees will engage in structured dialogue focused on program design, cross-campus collaboration, inclusive community development, and assessment practices. Participants will leave with transferable strategies and questions to inform or strengthen LLC work in their own institutional contexts.
Hiring, Holding, and Evolving: Rethinking RA Selection, Training, and Cyclical Staffing Systems
Resident Assistant (RA) recruitment, selection, and training processes are often treated as annual cycles, yet they are shaped by evolving institutional needs, contractual updates, labor dynamics, and shifting student populations. This session examines how residence education professionals design and revise staffing systems over time, including interviewing practices, contract updates, recruitment strategies, and reserve pool or “opt-in” staffing models.
The session also explores how external structural factors—including union negotiations and resulting status quo operating conditions—shape staffing flexibility, communication, and decision-making. In addition, participants will examine the complexities of RA roles embedded within Living-Learning Communities, particularly when academic departments share oversight responsibilities that influence staff expectations and student experiences.
Through facilitated discussion and shared practice exchange, attendees will critically examine how cyclical staffing systems impact students, student staff, and professional teams, and will identify strategies for improving clarity, sustainability, and alignment across recruitment, training, and implementation phases.
The One-Stop Shop: Integrating a Living-Learning Program and Housing Application
In 2024, the University of Michigan embarked on a project to integrate the Michigan Learning Communities application into our first-year housing application. Representing a major timeline shift for living-learning program applications relative to previous years, the integration was successful in providing an intentionally-designed new student experience and robust living-learning program enrollment. This session will walk through the process Michigan Housing undertook to gain application integration buy-in, engage academic program stakeholders, design the living-learning application in StarRez, and provide programs real-time application data needed for the project to be successful.
Brittney Roden
University of Michigan - Associate Director for Academic Connections, Residence Education
Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
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