{"id":183,"date":"2021-12-16T12:26:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T17:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/lasting-lessons\/?page_id=183"},"modified":"2021-12-16T12:31:27","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T17:31:27","slug":"allyson-straker-banks","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/lasting-lessons\/allyson-straker-banks\/","title":{"rendered":"Allyson Straker-Banks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"prpl-row\"><div class=\"prpl-column one-third\">\n<figure class=\"responsive-image-holder wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mlt-responsive-image\" data-original-image=\"\/lasting-lessons\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2021\/11\/091021_2487_Allyson-Straker-Banks-scaled.jpg\" src=\"\/responsive-media\/cache\/lasting-lessons\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2021\/11\/091021_2487_Allyson-Straker-Banks-scaled.jpg.0.1x.generic.jpg\" alt=\"Allyson Straker-Banks\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div><div class=\"prpl-column two-thirds\">\n<p><strong>Allyson Straker-Banks<\/strong><br \/>\nAssociate Vice President for Student Academic Services<\/p>\n<p>In her 16 years at Montclair, Allyson Straker-Banks held many positions \u2013 from associate dean overseeing several areas (New Student Experience, the Center for Advising and Adult Learning, the Educational Opportunity Fund Program and the Center for Academic Development and Assessment) to associate vice president sponsoring the creation of Red Hawk Central, the Center for Leadership and Engagement, the Center for Advising and Student Transitions (the precursor to University College) and, most recently, the redefined Center for Academic Success and Tutoring (CAST). Through it all, Straker-Banks, who retired this past summer, mentored and uplifted everyone in her path.<\/p><\/div><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Center for Leadership and Engagement Director Duane Williams says that Straker-Banks was his mentor. \u201cFor me, she is almost a mother-like figure. She\u2019s always pushing for young individuals, young males especially in an environment such as higher ed where Black males are not represented as much.\u201d Amery Q. Thompson \u201917 was inspired by Straker-Banks to work in Residential Life at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. \u201cShe is one of a kind. She takes chances on people\u2026.That\u2019s one of her superpowers \u2013 always willing to pour into others effortlessly but in such an intentional way. Now I\u2019m following in her footsteps trying to do that for the next student.\u201d Amanda Idiong, who will graduate in December with a degree in Child Advocacy and a minor in Theatre, met Straker-Banks while working at CAST. \u201cShe felt like family to me because my family is in Nigeria. So she was that person who I went to for guidance and advice, career-wise, relationship-wise.\u201d Says Williams: \u201cThat is one of her gifts, where she really knows how to empower individuals. That\u2019s her legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2013 Mary Barr Mann<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Center for Leadership and Engagement Director Duane Williams says that Straker-Banks was his mentor. \u201cFor me, she is almost a mother-like figure. She\u2019s always pushing for young individuals, young males especially in an environment such as higher ed where Black males are not represented as much.\u201d Amery Q. Thompson \u201917 was inspired by Straker-Banks to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":273,"featured_media":19,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-183","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/lasting-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/lasting-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/lasting-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/lasting-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/273"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/lasting-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/lasting-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/lasting-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183\/revisions\/200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/lasting-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/lasting-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}