Going Above & Beyond the Call of Duty

Being the department coordinator for the Communications Department wasn’t always something Nancy Perry envisioned for herself. Always wanting to help other people, she dreamed of being in some kind of role that would allow bringing happiness to others on a daily basis. Naturally coming into her role as the department coordinator was a pleasant surprise, but not totally unexpected.

Perry was born in Torrance, California, and lived there until she was in second grade. Her family moved to Riverside and later she attended Norwalk High School. After high school, she began attending Cerritos College, where it took her 10 years to get her associate’s degree. She struggled with advisors who gave her wrong information about the courses she needed to take and was largely lost in what she wanted to do with her life.

While growing up, she went back and forth between psychology or teaching. She liked helping people and due to having a very large family, they used to joke that they needed a psychologist in the family. This is something she seriously considered and wanted to pursue.

When she realized how much schooling it required, it steered her away from psychology. Still determined to help others, Perry decided she wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. She took four classes to get her certificate and completed one more class to be an infant-toddler teacher.

But this job required more caregiving than teaching and it wasn’t exactly what she envisioned herself doing long term. She started taking more GE classes at Cerritos and fell in love with photography. She got into photography because a friend of hers loved it and she admired her friend’s photos. Perry didn’t know what to do with it, however.

She didn’t want to pursue photojournalism because she felt that it would be tough for her personally.

“I feel like there’s a lot of times where you have to put yourself in a position where you’re taking pictures or scenes of an event that are kind of personal to another person,” Perry said. “I’m not the type of person to push those boundaries.”

So, she put that on the backburner. One of her friends worked for Cerritos College as an assistant and, after a long weekend with a friend and talking to her advisor, Perry found that advising just might be her calling.

In order to be closer to her parents, she attended Cal State San Bernardino, where she finished in two years.

Perry then got hired at CSUDH working with the Negotiation Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding (NCRP) program in 2018. She was an emergency hire and was contracted for six months but ended up working there until she got the coordinator position with the Communications Department in 2021.

There is no typical day in the Communications Department. Among her many duties, Perry helps students, works on the weekly department newsletter, assists with committees, and supports just about all of the department business. Helping faculty with any questions they have is also a focus of hers.

Special circumstances include when students or teachers are traveling, because she handles all the paperwork and makes sure that it is approved on time. She makes sure faculty can get access to their classrooms, manages an office assistant and documents faculty meetings.

Perry’s job is crucial to the COM Department because she values bridging the gap between her department and other departments.

By having a support coordinator like Perry, it allows the department chair and faculty to do what’s most important—be there for the students. It frees up more of the faculty’s time and focuses on important issues for them.

Perry has been the front person since faculty can’t always be there to meet with people or students because they have to teach throughout the day. Perry also does a lot of problem solving and detective work to find the correct answers or documents, which she thoroughly enjoys.

In essence, Perry is the face of the department.

With the support of the dean’s office and the Communications Department, Perry has also been able to further her education. She was admitted to the Higher Education Administration and Leadership (HEAL) program with a master’s certificate here on CSUDH campus. She completed it last fall. She was also accepted to Kansas State University’s online master’s program for academic advising. She has hopes of finishing this summer.

Perry is very appreciative of everyone she works with and reflects positive energy with whoever she comes in contact with. She is particularly appreciative of her student assistants, who were hired through the Work Study program. It’s given Perry experience in supervising, since she’s never had that type of responsibility before, and provides her with support whenever Perry is out of the office.

They learn from each other on a daily basis, she says, but Perry is learning the dynamic of being an authority figure and not just a coworker, teaching her assistants skills like Excel, doing mail merges, how to write professional emails and how to respond to them as well.

Perry is also the committee chair of the Communications Department Student Awards and Graduation Celebration, held on campus. The committee wants to put more emphasis and focus on the students receiving awards and celebrate their achievements. Their goal is to have it more concentrated on what the students deserve, the acceptance of scholarships and awards. It is a great opportunity for students to come and celebrate the year.

Additionally, Perry finished the mental health first aid training. There have been a couple instances on campus where she felt she could have intervened, but because she didn’t have the proper training, she felt it was inappropriate to intervene. She also wants to have a fueling station in the office for students who are suffering from food insecurities. She is working with the Basic Needs program to accomplish this goal.

Outside of work, Perry is a talented photographer who enjoys creating art with her photographs. She holds a bachelor’s degree in photography from CSUSB. She specializes in photographs of the moon that look similar to ink blots she calls “sky blots,” which are completely different each time and illustrate her unique vision and style.

Her attention to detail is superb and her passion is shown in every image. If you want to see more of her work, look up the hashtag “#skyblots” on Instagram to see these incredible photos.

If there is one person who deserves recognition for excellency, Perry certainly fits the bill. The amount of care and attention to detail she puts in every day really shows. From the beautiful newsletters to the patience, understanding and attending to the needs of students or faculty, she rises to the occasion in any situation and does it with admirable energy.