By: Matt Marsh, Lion’s Eye Staff Editor, mwm6137@psu.edu

With the start of a new academic year and fall term, one naturally thinks of the new field of freshman and transfer students, but it also is a time when new faculty and staff get acclimated to the Brandywine campus and community.

The academic affairs team added four new staff members coming into this school year as well as four faculty members. Zoia Pavlovskaia, lecturer in business, Kimeta Straker, coordinator for student success and retention coordinator, and Anna Bachus coordinator of student disability resources are just three of those being introduced.

Zoia Pavlovskaia teaches in the business department at Brandywine. Pavlovskaia graduated from Saint Joseph’s University with an undergraduate degree in international marketing and an M.B.A in marketing. Before teaching, Pavlovskaia worked in business, sales, sports marketing, public relations, brand management, and social media management in the U.S. and Russia. She expects that her, “industry experience allows students to experience both the practical and theoretical application of business concepts.”

Keep an eye out for Professor Pavlovskaia at Fair Trade events on campus where she will be bringing her knowledge and know-how to the community. Since Brandywine is the only Fair Trade campus among the Penn State campuses, she said, “I’m eager to be a part of the Fair Trade efforts here at Penn State Brandywine.”

Kimeta Straker has a goal of student success and, especially for incoming freshman, student camaraderie. Coming from the University of Connecticut where she was employed for 15 years as the assistant director of advising. She anticipates that coming to a smaller campus, “allows faculty and staff to be able work together towards student success.” A goal Straker set her sights on is to galvanize the students around the brand of Penn State, “whether it’s a hashtag, or an event, or some type of activity that would bring students together to talk about what it was that attracted them to Brandywine.”

With Fall 2019 being her first “start” of an academic year at Brandywine, she has already dubbed the class of 2023 #Tenacious23Brandywine because she is hopeful they are tenacious enough to have a great experience from the start of their first semester until their last in 2023.

Anna Bachus started working at Brandywine in late January and from her first day she has worked as, “an advocate for students with disabilities on our campus and to help the campus community ensure that we are inclusive and accessible for those with disabilities.” Transitioning to Brandywine Bachus was, “very excited about the opportunity to work on a small, intimate campus and she has really enjoyed having the ability to develop strong relationships with the campus community here.”

Come say hello to the new staff who can all be found on the second floor of the Main Building.

As the new academic year kicks off note that there are new faces all over the campus ranging from incoming freshman to transfer students all the way to new faculty and staff, so be sure to wave to a stranger and hug a friend. The new school year is here.