Meet A Deac

In this Issue: today is a Meet A Deac staff profile

A new week means a new Meet A Deac. Today I am pleased to introduce you to one of my colleagues in the Dean of Students office, Amy Mohan.

Amy, thanks for agreeing to be our Meet A Deac this week. Can you start by telling me your job title? My title is Associate Director of Finance & Operations, in the Office of the Dean of Students.

And how long have you worked at Wake? 18 years.

Tell me a little about your educational background. I have a BFA in Theatre from NC School of the Arts, and a BA in Sociology from UNC-Greensboro.

How would you describe your job in layperson’s terms? My primary role during the academic year is to provide oversight for the Student Organization Finance Office (SOFO), which assists our 175+ funded student organizations with the financial and operational aspects of running a club. In practice, this means supervising our staff members who assist with budget approvals and expense transactions; managing payroll for the student newspaper, the yearbook and Student Government; advising student groups about fundraising and revenue activities; and creating sales in our ticketing and online sales platform called Cvent.

I also perform various project management and technical tasks for the business units of the Dean of Students office, such as creating/updating websites, producing online training materials, and maintaining our departmental payment systems. For several months of the year, I also have a primary role in the planning and implementation of Family Weekend.

What would you like people to know about your job or area? Our mission in the Student Organization Finance Office (SOFO) is to de-stress and demystify the operational aspects of running a student club. Beyond simply processing transactions, we also try to teach our student leaders to think critically and strategically about managing financial resources. Our goal is to equip them with the skills they need to be successful in their roles, so they can spend more time focusing on the fun and fulfilling parts of running a club.

What do you like best about working at Wake? I love the energy and excitement that students show when planning and executing their group activities. I enjoy listening to them and participating in their learning processes, and watching them grow from teenagers to young adults. Another big plus about working at Wake Forest is how beautiful our campus is, especially in the fall.

What advice would you give Wake students if they asked you? I’d offer some practical advice from a person with an operations background and mindset: don’t be afraid to ask questions! If the person you start with doesn’t know the answer, they will find someone who does.

And what would be your advice for parents and families? Trust your student and allow them to make mistakes, then let them learn from those mistakes.

What’s your favorite place on campus? This is a tough question. There are many spots on campus where I truly feel a sense of being at home. One of the places I notice most often is the row of beautiful old trees that grow street-side between Davis Field and Olin Hall. No matter whether they’re snowy, covered in autumn leaves, or supporting students in hammocks, they are always just a sight to behold.

Now we arrive at the bonus questions!

Book(s) you’re reading now, and/or podcasts you are listening to: My favorite podcast currently is Paul Cooper’s Fall of Civilizations podcast. It is meticulously researched, beautifully written, and really, really interesting.

Favorite band/musician: I go through phases with music, and appreciate all kinds of genres whenever the musicians are good or inventive. But the genre I am most likely to be listening to on any average day is electronica, and my all-time favorite project is Boards of Canada.

Favorite movies/TV shows/Netflix, etc.: I love ridiculous comedy – the more ridiculous the better! This year my favorite show was What We Do in the Shadows on FX. I also really loved Barry, Only Murders in the Building, and Our Flag Means Death.

Website(s) you frequent: Prairie Moon Nursery, Forsyth County Extension Service, and Wikipedia.

What brings you joy? Being outside, building flower and vegetable beds and filling them with plants, going for hikes and taking nature photos.

Introvert or extrovert? Most decidedly an introvert.

Something most people don’t know about you: I’m really, truly terrible at math and avoided studying it through most of high school and two stints in college. Fortunately I have access to the greatest invention of the 20th century, Excel!

What didn’t I ask that you’d want to answer? “How many plants do you have growing in your office right now?” The answer is 7. Follow up question: “Do you have room for more plants and do you intend to increase that number?” And the answer is yes, yes indeed I do.

Amy, thanks for being this week’s Meet A Deac, and thank you for all you do for our students and our campus – and our families at Family Weekend!

Reminder: you can read past Meet A Deacs here.