Esther Rosbrook, assistant director of Colgate University’s ALANA Cultural Center, will assume the director position on June 1. She is currently serving as the center’s assistant director.
“Esther has developed countless relationships with students during her time at Colgate that have deepened during her time as the current assistant director of ALANA Cultural Center,” said Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II. “Her warmth with students and focus on their success in and out of the classroom, combined with her vision for addressing structural inequities through relationship building and collaboration, make her the perfect choice for this director role.”
During the course of a 20-year career, Rosbrook has spent a decade supervising at multinational organizations, and eight in student affairs positions. She arrived at Colgate in 2012 and held administrative posts in both ALANA and the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures before becoming assistant director of residential life and housing in 2016.
As ALANA assistant director, Rosbrook has already partnered with faculty, staff, and students to help reshape the University’s approach to social justice peer education and the ways in which it trains intergroup dialogue interns and student ambassadors. Since last year, Esther has focused on enhancing students’ leadership development as well as Colgate’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals through assessment-driven work with community leaders, peer educators’ workshops, intergroup dialogue workshops, and ambassadors’ events.
“I am very passionate about the work that the ALANA Cultural Center at Colgate University does on behalf of our community,” Rosbrook said. “I have and will continue to work to raise awareness of the need for a comprehensive approach to diversity and equity as well as community building and education.”
Rosbrook holds a bachelor of science in economics and business management from the University of Indonesia and a master of science in adult education from SUNY–Buffalo. She is currently pursuing her doctorate of education in organizational leadership at Northeastern University.
McLoughlin commended the work of the search committee in selecting Rosbrook. “I want to thank the committee members for their diligence in this process, especially as we shifted to working remotely,” McLoughlin said. Search committee members included co-chairs Assistant Director of Residential Life Chimebere Nwaoduh and Senior Advisor to the President Christopher Wells as well as Associate Professor of Philosophy Maura Tumulty, ALANA Office Manager Carly Dougher, Assistant Professor of English Nimanthi Rajasingham, Anthony Wright ’20, and Jaritza Nunez ’21.