Contributor/ Dylan Wade-Parham

Sitting in her cozy office decorated with African-American memorabilia is Dr. Nicole Whitner:   daughter, dean, advisor, friend and an unapologetic Black woman. Her passion for helping others and mentoring students is what makes her who she is. Now in her second year as the Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students at the University of San Diego, Dr. Whitner guides students into having a successful college experience. 

She recalled her past, her experience at the University of San Diego, growing up Black and being an only child who was raised by a single mother and grandmother. Whitner describes the bond she has with her family is unbreakable. 

Whitner’s role at the University of San Diego is to be an administrative leader. The Dean of Students over sees areas such as Residential Life, Student Conduct and the Center for Student Success. 

“I chair a few committees; one of the most important ones is the committee that helps coordinate support for students who are facing challenges,” Whitner said. “It is composed of a number of campus partners from all over. Folks would be able to either speak to or actually engage in supporting students who might be struggling for various reasons: academic reasons, they might be homesick and trying to adjust or they might have financial aid challenges they are not sure how to get to.” 

She also mentioned that part of her role here at USD is to be an advocate for the student experience. 

“I’m an administrative leader; my role whenever I’m in leadership spaces or other campus-wide spaces is to be able to speak to what students are experiencing and what they might need,” she said.

Dr. Nicole Whitner was born and raised in sunny San Diego, California, in the East County Valley area. She expressed how growing up in San Diego shaped who she is today. “I feel really blessed to have grown up in San Diego; this is home for me. I feel like I had a really great experience in general,” Whitner said. Being from San Diego and going off to school helped form her understanding and development of herself. She does not have any siblings, but has a big extended family. “I have a big family. I have lots of cousins, aunts and uncles,” Whitner said. “It kind of sometimes feels like I have siblings.’’ She expressed how there are not a lot of African Americans in San Diego. “Like half of the 5% of Black San Diegans are probably my family members… because I have a big family,” Whitner said with a laugh. “San Diego looks a lot different now than it did when I grew up, and I think there is a lot that is shifting for the good, but it still is not as diverse.” Whitner’s mother, Mary Brown, inspires her to keep doing what she does. Brown raised her as a single mom, while working for the city of San Diego in the engineering department. Her mom was the youngest of eight siblings and was raised in Arkansas. Her family moved out to San Diego to start a life here, and she is the only one of her siblings who finished high school in San Diego.

Whitner voiced how her mother made everything possible for her.

“She didn’t get the chance to finish her education in college, and despite being a really smart person, she still found a way to do whatever she could to make my life smooth, uninterrupted and healthy. I have no idea how she did it,” Whitner said. “I never question whether my mom loved or supported me; I can’t think of a single thing I could possibly do to ever lose that from my mom.”

Whitner described her grandmother Pearlie Brown, as a “strong woman”. Whitner continued to express that her grandmother loved her family hard and would advocate for her and members of her family to receive an education.

“She went through a lot of harsh things, she grew up in the Jim Crow era and faced a lot of challenges that I can’t even imagine. I think I live a life that I hope would make her proud.”

Whitner has an aunt who worked at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) for over forty years, who she explains is also one of her trusted mentors.

“She has connections here at USD and folks who know her, so just by nature being an extension of her, I feel like it’s been a blessing to know that she left an impact.”

When choosing a career for her future, Whitner originally took a different path.

“I probably took the weirdest, randomest path to get here,” she said with a laugh. “When I went to undergrad, I actually studied architecture, and I thought that’s what I was gonna do.”

Whitner earned her undergraduate bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Even though she intended to become an architect, Whitner found herself with another passion. During her time as an undergrad, she had plenty of work-study jobs that were focused on education. She was a tutor at an elementary after-school program and worked for a college prep program with high school students.

“Eventually I got into college admissions, and I was like, ‘this is closer,’ but with admissions, you’re really helping students get into school, and then you hand them off and you know you work with the next group,” she said.

Dr. Whitner communicated that she longed to be a part of something even bigger.

“I wanted to be a little bit more a part of the student’s experience, so that’s how I landed as an academic advisor, and then that role I started to discover all the different ways that people worked to support students, and I started to become more curious. That was when I decided to go back to grad school.”

She received her Master of Science in Higher Education Leadership from Capella University, a private college in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After, she earned her Doctorate of Education in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California in 2018. After earning her doctorate, Whitner has been able to “find her home” in student affairs.

Prior to joining USD, Whitner was the Dean of Students in 2018 at a small institution called Holy Names University in Oakland, California. She worked there for a little over three years.

“I was an assistant dean for diversity and inclusion at California College of the Arts, which is a small, private, art school. They had campuses both in Oakland and San Francisco. I worked there all together for eight years, when I left I was an assistant dean, but when I started there, I was an academic advisor and had few different roles over the course of the eight years.”

Her message to young Black women and girls is to “remember themselves and to not take on too much of what the world will put on you. There are a lot of stereotypes, expectations, ideals and criticisms that are put upon Black women in the United States that I think are unique to being a Black woman and are hard to carry. There are so many different multitudes that we can hold.”

She is an Assistant Vice President, an avid Disney lover, a “nerd” in her words who loves Steven Universe, NSYNC and can be “#BlackAF” because she spent her formative years in Oakland. She is proud to be the person that “folks trust.”

“[What’s important to me is] folks who feel like they can share their experiences with me. Whether that’s students I’m able to meet and connect with or my friends, colleagues and loved ones… Just being someone who is open and folks feel like if they are having a hard time or they’re battling something that I can be a resource for them in that way. It makes me proud, when I’m able to celebrate people and their successes and when they are excited to celebrate with me when it is my turn,” Whitner explained.

Whitner also explained she wants students at the University of San Diego to embrace themselves.

“I think really just embracing yourself and remembering that you have to take care of yourself as well. I used to say this to my academic advisees that you don’t have to just be a byproduct of where you came from or who your family is. And if anyone doesn’t appreciate that about you, they’re probably not that important.”

Whitner plans to continue to utilize her position to uplift and catalyze positive social change for students at USD.