In mid-July, former Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Director of the Center for Multicultural Life (CML) Eduardo Pazos announced that he would be leaving Bowdoin to pursue a new position as vice president of community and belonging at St. Olaf College. Following the news, Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Dean of Student Engagement & Leadership Katie Toro-Ferrari shared that Shi Thompson ’24, who was set to become the new assistant director of identity & culture, no longer intended to join the team.

In response to these vacancies, Toro-Ferrari named an interim team which will lead the CML this year.

The interim team is composed of Director of Religious & Spiritual Life Oliver Goodrich, Jasmine Ross ’14 and Maya Dowling-Wolfe ’23. Director of the Sexuality, Women and Gender Center (SWAG) Natalie Turrin and Department Coordinator for Identity & Culture and THRIVE Rachel Lloyd will continue permanently working in the CML as well.

Looking to the future, Toro-Ferrari said the College will conduct a national search to fill the position of director of the CML by the beginning of next academic year.

“The plan has been to get somebody amazing right now…. But the reality is, it’s not normally our process,” Toro-Ferrari said. “It felt like the right approach for us to do this now and then say later in the fall, we’re going to do the full search.”

Toro-Ferrari urged students to join the search committee to find a new director. She said that shared governance—having students be involved in decision-making by participating in committees—is taken very seriously at Bowdoin.

“[Shared governance] may not be visible to students because not everybody serves on a committee,” Toro-Ferrari said. “I do think there is an extra level of really wanting to make sure that we’re intentional with students buying in [to the search process].”

Toro-Ferrari also emphasized the importance of having an interim team in place during a year of elections and global unrest.

“There’s a lot going on in the world. There’s a big election coming up in this country. There continue to be conflicts across the globe that I think we’re seeing ripples of here on our campus,” she said. “This is an important position that offers a lot of support to students with various different identities on this campus.”

As the interim director of identity and culture, Goodrich is excited to use his experience in spiritual leadership in his role focused on inclusion and diversity. He believes looking at individual and institutional beliefs is essential to addressing identity.

“I find it really energizing to think about how spiritual practices can help us become more aware of our hidden biases, be energized and re-engage the work of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and anti-racism,” he said.

Goodrich’s intersectional approach to identity and culture was previously promoted by Pazos. Goodrich said that Pazos emphasized intersectionality at the College by giving SWAG, CML, the Rachel Lord Center for Religious and Spiritual Life and THRIVE a shared location in Ladd House.

“[Pazos’s] legacy is here in this space that we inhabit every day and the programs that we run. He physically hung up the photos you see of students [in Ladd]. When I look at those photos of students engaging in these spaces and in our affinity groups, I think of [Pazos] and the work that he has done,” Goodrich said.

While continuing Pazos’s work at the CML, Goodrich aims to bring his own ideas and viewpoints to enrich the program.

“I would do an injustice to [Pazos] and an injustice to [myself] if I tried to do this job the way he did. I just want to try to be me and do this as well as I can until we hire a full-time person,” he said.

Dowling-Wolfe was announced as interim assistant director for identity & culture this year. After graduating from Bowdoin with a double major in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies and History in 2023, she proceeded to work at a charter school in New York City where she coached students on the admissions process. At Bowdoin, she wants to specialize in supporting affinity groups and their leaders.

“Student affinity workers do so much for the school and to create communities for themselves and for others, and I really respect all that they do. Doing that on top of going to Bowdoin is a lot,” Dowling-Wolfe said. “I hope that [affinity group leaders] know that they can set boundaries and do what they think is manageable and not feel the pressure to have an event every week or every month.”

Ross will serve as the interim program manager of the CML. During her first few days in her new role, Ross aims to understand how Bowdoin has changed since she was last a student here ten years ago.

“It’s a different school. You guys have gone through different things. You guys have experienced Covid in a way that I didn’t have during my school year,” Ross said. “My goal has really just been to figure out where you guys are, what you guys want and what you want to see.”

Ross previously worked in healthcare and higher education, focusing on program management and recruitment. She feels optimistic her people skills and understanding of institutions will transfer to her new role.

“When you know what the structure of an institution has in place, it helps you find what you need within that institution,” Ross said. “My superpower is that I’m just nosy and I like talking to people. I like learning things, I like sharing information and I like connecting people.”

Ross hopes that by the end of the year, all students will see her as a resource in navigating their four years of college.

“You have to figure out who you are, and you have to put in the energy and the effort to engage with the school,” Ross said. “It took me four full years to do that, and I’m hoping that in my year here, I can share some of the things that I learned while I was here that were really helpful for me in that transition.”