with Kim O'Halloran
Kim O'Halloran
Born:
Brooklyn, NY
Raised:
Rockaway, NJ
Education:
B.A., English and economics
Ed.M., higher education
Rutgers University
Family:
Married 12 years to husband, Roger. They have two Beagles, Boris and Natasha.
Favorite Sports Teams:
Knicks and Yankees
Create. Develop. Implement. These three words are common descriptors
for what Kim O'Halloran has done throughout her career, and her work at
Montclair State has been no different.
Kim joined the University in August as the first director of Graduate
Student Services and Retention. She is used to being the first in a position.
At New York University Kim was the first manager of Planning and Marketing
for the Student Health Center in the Division of Student Affairs and the
director of MBA Program Initiatives at the university's Stern School of
Business. At Cornell, she became the first assistant director of Student
Development and External Relations at the Public Service Center, and she
was the first marketing coordinator in Rutgers College Office of Student
Activities and Leadership Development.
"I enjoy the challenges and rewards that come with creating something
new," she said. "I have so many ideas I want to implement. There
is so much I want to do that the hardest part of my job is deciding what
needs to be done first."
At Montclair State, Kim and her staff help graduate students stay on track.
"We take the two-prong approach of addressing the academic needs
of students in the classroom as well as paying close attention to their
needs outside of the classroom," she said. They do this by monitoring
students' progress and offering support to graduate advisers. They also
oversee orientations, graduate workshops and graduate assistantship programs,
and create related print and electronic publications. "We function
as student services generalists who happen to specialize in working with
graduate students," she explained.
Kim also strives to work collaboratively with other departments. "We
don't want to replicate what already exists," she said. "We
want to complement what other offices are doing, keeping the best interests
of the graduate students in mind."
The pressures of being a student are still familiar to Kim who is working
on her dissertation for a Ph.D. in higher education administration from
New York University. Balancing work, family and school is made easier,
she said, because she loves what she does. "It's a great feeling
when students come to me with a problem and I can lead them to an answer,"
she said. "That's when I know my job here is important."