Meet Ayana Phillips
What’s your official job title?
Administrative Manager of Faculty Services at the Tisch School of the Arts
Years/months at NYU:
8 years
What’s your hometown?
New York City
What kind of projects do you work on?
I support many aspects of the faculty lifecycle at Tisch – faculty grant applications, faculty recruitment, management of faculty sabbaticals, visiting scholar appointments, administering chair reviews, faculty workshops, and supporting the teaching excellence award committee.
What’s your role in the AMC?
Member of the AMC Benefits Committee
Why NYU?
NYU is equal-parts “workplace” and “community.” The community environment is an advantage that NYU has over other places of business. It makes the workplace function differently because communities have a natural agenda to care for the common welfare, to a certain degree.
Do you have a hidden talent?
Acting
What are you currently reading?
“Yurts: Living in the Round” (isn’t everyone reading it?!)
Is there an NYU benefit or perk that you use or think everyone should know about?
Closing costs reimbursements for the purchase of a home. I just found out about that one – a very valuable benefit!
Favorite travel destination?
Any campsite near a beach
Name your favorite spot on campus.
The Meditation Room in the Center for Spiritual Life (238 Thompson Street, 4th Floor, Room 486). I have never worked anywhere else where this kind of space was offered to staff. I visit the room a few times a year to spend time in quiet reflection.
Any advice for new administrators?
During your first academic year, look for all the ways your seemingly unrelated tasks or projects feed into one another. This positions you to refine your work in year 2 since you now see the impact from one project to another.
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