APAC PROFILE

Jennifer Anderson.

Jennifer Anderson First Graduate Assistant for APAC

By Lucia Gonzalez

JENNIFER ANDERSON is the first Graduate Assistant that APAC has ever hired. Her new position will allow her to help organize the monthly APAC meetings, as well as the APAC subcommittee meetings. She is also available to the APAC board members for special projects, website updates, and anything that can relieve them from some of the administrative duties resulting from their volunteer positions.

ANDERSON IS fascinated by the work that APAC does. “I am learning so much about the public higher ed system and I feel this education will be vastly useful for me in my future endeavors,” she explained. For example, Anderson is learning about the intricacies of State and University policy; every day, they become less foreign to her.

HER GOAL is to organize the new Graduate Assistant post to the point that APAC can run as efficiently as possible. She wants to establish an easy-to-follow protocol for the monthly tasks so that APAC board members can transition smoothly to utilizing her assistance.

“SINCE THIS is a new role,” Anderson said, “I hope APAC members will feel comfortable reaching out to me if they need help with something they are working on. I am at your service ten hours a week, so please, utilize me as needed.”

OUTSIDE OF her work APAC work, Anderson is in her first year of the Master’s of Public Health degree program, concentrating in Maternal and Child Health. She currently also works as a lactation consultant. Prior to that, she worked in non-profit administration.

ANDERSON’S WISH is to leverage her MPH degree and return to non-profit administration with a focus on maternal and infant nutrition. She currently is working with a team to establish a donor human milk bank in the Chicagoland area to serve local neonatal care units.

“I RUN the local chapter of my International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners professional association,” Anderson noted. “It is really quite comforting to see that many of our concerns overlap with those of APAC members, despite it being a very different industry.”

ANDERSON DOES not have a lot of spare time because she has two young children, work, and school. However, she particularly enjoys running and cooking. She has a passion for many food-related activities, such as gardening, trying new types of foods, herbs, spices, and learning more about cooking.

CONTACT ANDERSON at jander72@uic.edu.