Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

Dr. Wallace Southerland will discuss his vision for Student Affairs at MTU as well as characteristics of Millennials and Generation Z.  He will share best practices for engagement and collaboration with these groups.  Dr. Wallace Southerland III is the vice president of student affairs and dean of students at Michigan Technological University.  Dr. Southerland has been with Tech since July 1, 2021 and living in the Houghton community since July 20, 2021.  In his role, Dr. Southerland is responsible for the Division of Student Affairs which includes nine departments that deliver academic support, out-of-class programming, career services, mental health and wellness services, leadership development, community service experiences, housing, and other services that promote lifelong learning and success.  Prior to joining Tech and coming to Houghton, Dr. Southerland was associate vice president of student affairs at Salisbury University in Maryland.  And prior to that, Dr. Southerland was associate dean of students and director of minority student affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Over the course of three decades of leadership roles in the higher education community, Dr. Southerland has devoted his career to serving and working with students, especially first-generation, low-income, disability, veteran, and historically underrepresented students from 5th grade through the preparation for graduate school.  Dr. Southerland is a former adjunct faculty member for several global distance learning universities such as Walden University, University of Phoenix, and Capella University. A native of Washington, D.C.  Dr. Southerland is married to Medra Roberts of Long Island, New York and they have one daughter, a freshman, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Dr. Southerland received his B.A. degree in English and M.S. degree in counseling from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and his Ph.D. in Education Policy, Planning, and Administration from the University of Maryland, College Park.