After 15 ½ years at Ithaca College, Yolanda Clarke, Manager of Tutoring and Academic Enrichment Services, will be leaving for a new career with the State University of New York at Cortland as an Assistant Professor/Diversity Faculty Fellow in the department of Health. In this full-time faculty role, Yolanda will use the first year to complete her doctoral dissertation, while teaching one course. Thereafter, she looks forward to continuing to teach, conduct research, and publish in this tenure-track position, and support departmental DEIB initiatives.
Yolanda began working at IC in January of 2008. She brought with her deep experience from two powerhouse schools: The Pennsylvania State University where she worked for 11 years and earned her master’s degree in Counselor Education, and Cornell University where she worked for 6 years and took enrichment courses in Africana Studies to learn more about history and its influence on the health and wellness of Black people in America. Prior to her career in higher education, Yolanda worked in human services field and in the banking industry.
While she has declined a large, formal goodbye event, and chosen the moment of her departure announcement, she may be lured back for a celebration of her next chapter this fall. In the meantime, she can accept well wishes through her Ithaca College email account as a devoted member of our retired staff community: yclarke@ithaca.edu.
Some of Yolanda’s IC accomplishments include writing successful CSTEP and HEOP grants; leading the former Ithaca College Summer Institute for students of color; chairing the committee for the former ALANA/POC/BIPOC academic awards banquet; launching ad hoc and sustained academic student development and peer educator initiatives; and building the first centralized peer tutoring program in the campus history. She supported the development of the School of Music (SoM) Fundamentals Success Program (now housed in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance); collaborated with the Physics department to develop and sustain the Physics peer led undergraduate groups (PLuGs); partnered with Modern Languages to develop the weekly Tertulias for students taking Spanish; and worked with the Park School of Communications to build a Course Ambassadors program to support academic and intellectual development of Film Aesthetics and Analysis students.
Using her specialized knowledge and experience with retention programs for first-year, underrepresented, and other at-risk students, Yolanda developed and administered the Emerging Scholars Program (ESP) (2010-2020) as a home for students of color offering routine weekly study nights, workshops, alumni engagement, cultural programming. She collaborated with Sister-2-Sister and Brothers-4-Brothers on various projects and ad hoc events, and served as a First Year Residence Hall Associate.
Yolanda’s committee service will be missed acutely: over the years, she served on First Year Experience Coordinating; Diversity; Retention and Engagement Strategy (REST); Experiential Learning and many other significant bodies devoted to improving the student experience.
After the Academic Advising Center closed, Yolanda took on the leadership of the Peer Success Coaching program and revitalized Tau Sigma National Honor Society prior to its restoration to its original home, New Student and Transition Programs.
Long committed on ongoing professional development, Yolanda was part of the inaugural class of participants for the Antiracism Institute offered by the Center for Faculty Excellence; participated on the Covid-19 Rapid Response Honors Salon planning team; and served as a guest panelist and moderator for two film talks with the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival.
In addition to her broad campus engagement, Yolanda has represented Ithaca College with distinction on a national level serving on the Board of Directors for the Association for College Tutoring and Learning Assistance (ACTLA) as Special Interest Group Leader for Multiculturism and as a mentor to new coordinators of tutoring programs for the College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA). She leaves Ithaca with a distinguished record of workshops, pre-conference sessions, and roundtable discussions at state and national learning assistance professional conferences.
Her transition to a faculty role aligns with her values and her work here at IC, where she taught two Ithaca Seminars: “High as a Kite: A Nation Under the Influence”and “Inclusive Recreation and Diversity.” Additionally, Yolanda taught transfer seminars and mentored transfer students for a number of years.
Yolanda began teaching “Inequalities in Health” in the School of Health Science and Human Performance, which proved to be the key to her transition to her new professional focus. Yolanda’s initiatives for the IC community included: the “Black Men’s Roundtable Discussion” with IC Black male alums to highlight the disparate experiences of Black males on college campuses; bringing Dr. David Ansell, author of “The Death Gap: How Inequality Kills,” to IC as part of a collaborative program with the Department of Health Sciences and Public Health and the Tompkins County Office of Human Rights.
As she begins her new role, Yolanda wants to express her “eternal gratitude” for Heather Crider and her camaraderie, genuine care for the work of learning assistance, and for 12 years as a faithful colleague; for Ithaca faculty who invested in tutorial support for IC students; for TAES student employees who labor without complaint with their peers to forge mutual success; and for the students trying to earn degrees and find their place in a conflicted society.
Yolanda would like to thank Dr. Sally Neal, for her encouragement and for allowing her to take doctoral classes and develop her teaching gifts while working. She extends a special shoutout to Professor Stewart Auyash and Professor Deborah Wuest for intentional dedicated mentoring and guidance in pedagogy in the field of public health. And she acknowledges other great people at IC too numerous to mention.
Ithaca College will always hold a special place in Yolanda’s heart as her parents rued the fact that they were unable to afford to send her here as an undergraduate student. Her move to join the staff at IC was a source of joy to her father, who in his last years of life coping with dementia, learned that Yolanda was “finally going to Ithaca!”
On the occasion of her retirement from Ithaca College, and 32 years in staff roles at 3 institutions, Yolanda departs to her faculty position with this charge for President Cornish, Provost Stein and the entire campus community:
“Thank you for the opportunity to serve. Stay WOKE in the FIGHT. God be with you and much success in the days and years ahead. Honorably and with love, Yolanda.”