The Office of Disabilities Resources welcomes a new face this week: Monica Isbell, formerly the disability services coordinator for Alamance Community College, will now serve at Elon University as the director of disabilities resources. The change comes after longtime director Susan Wise stepped down in September 2022.
Now that the almost year-long vacant position has been filled, Isbell said she is focusing on the “two L’s” — listening and learning. She is working on understanding office procedure and getting to know students and faculty before figuring out what she wants to work on in the campus community.
In fact, Isbell said for her, building relationships is essential in any job.
“I think it's important for me to be visible on campus so that students can see me not just holed up in the office all day, but being visible, being a partner in the campus community and working with organizations and working with our students,” Isbell said.
During the 17 years at Isbell’s previous position at ACC, she said she not only worked with students to support them but she worked with faculty and staff to bring organization and structure to ACC disability services.
“Disability is part of access,” Isbell said. “How do we work together to make sure that all have the opportunity to be able to participate in whatever we offer?”
Here at Elon, one faculty member she will be engaging with a lot is James Holsinger, the director of learning assistance in the Koenigsberger Learning Center. Holsinger recently became the executive director of the KLC in addition to his other position.
In this new role, Holsinger said he is facilitating conversation between the departments of the KLC — disability resources, academic advising and learning assistance. Holsinger makes sure the offices have what they need and that the KLC is moving in the direction they want to move it in. While he is still directing learning assistance, he doesn’t have to direct the other offices.
But Holsinger said even during his five years at Elon, he already worked closely with the other offices and collaborated with disability services in his management of the tutoring program.
“Disability resources, their job is to make sure students have accommodations or have access in the classroom, but it's not just in the classroom,” Holsinger said. “So, we are often, for instance, working with tutors specifically to help students who might have different learning needs, who are registered through disabilities resources. And so I've learned a ton about that.”
Holsinger offered the example of pairing a student with executive functioning issues up with a learning strategies tutor, who will help the student learn how to take good notes, form study habits and stay organized.
Isbell’s student interaction has been around since before her time at ACC. Isbell received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work, focusing on public education. She said at least 80% of students she worked with had disabilities, which led her to continue working in disability services and brought her to higher education — ACC.
Now, she’s continuing her time in higher education at Elon, bringing her skills from ACC to the table while being open to learning, especially since transitioning from a community college to a private university.
“Getting used to some of those things that we didn't have at the community college: the housing, navigating a larger campus community,” Isbell said. “Those are things that I will have to adjust to but I’m going to be able to — I’ve already started.”
With Isbell and Holsinger’s new positions in the KLC, Holsinger said he is prioritizing making sure students know that the offices of the KLC are not individual, mutually exclusive places — they are places that work together to connect students to where they need to be.