Mimi Benjamin and John Wesley Lowery, professors in the Student Affairs in Higher Education Program in the IUP Student Affairs, Student Success, and Disability Access Department, each presented at the 2025 NASPA Conference in New Orleans in March. NASPA is the largest student affairs professional organization in the world, and the annual conference was attended by more than 6,600 student affairs professionals, faculty, and students.
Benjamin presented multiple sessions at the conference. She presented a poster session on her co-authored research study titled “Establishing Belonging Through Peer Support Programs for Underrepresented Students,” which highlighted the findings of an international, multi-institutional study on peer mentoring. Additionally, along with Ann Gansemer-Topf (Iowa State University) and Laila McCloud (Grand Valley State University), she cofacilitated “Student Affairs Scholars of Practice: Envisioning a Research-to-Practice Approach for Student Affairs” with a focus on the Scholarship of Teaching, Learning, and Practice. Benjamin also served as a discussant for scholarly papers, and she is a member of the planning committee for the 2026 conference.
Lowery, who serves as NASPA historian and chairs the History Advisory Board, presented with Darryl Holloman (vice president for student affairs, Spelman College) on the history of the involvement of HBCU student affairs professionals’ involvement in NASPA. The presentation was titled “The Ties that Bind: HBCUs and NASPA Celebrate a 75-Year Partnership.” Holloman is NASPA’s board chair-elect and the first student affairs administrator working at HBCU to be elected to that office in the association’s history.