UM's first high-level minority administrator is a diminutive figure with a soothing voice. Teresa Branch, UM's new vice president for Student Affairs, says her quiet way of speaking probably developed during her years working as a counseling psychologist for college students. Now her soft voice leads a dozen diverse UM offices, ranging from Enrollment Services and Residence Life to Campus Recreation and University Dining Services. She started her Missoula job June 9, 2003.

A native of Los Angeles, Branch has a degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, a master's degree in criminal justice from the State University of New York in Albany and a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Washington in Seattle.

So can she really psychoanalyze people? "Probably," she laughs, "but I try to be seamless about it so it's not obvious I'm doing it."

After working as a counselor in the Seattle area for many years, Branch moved to Arizona State University, where she directed that university's counseling center from 1987 to 2000. She also was named assistant vice president for student affairs from 1996 to 2000. Then during 2000-03, she was assistant vice president for student affairs at Iowa State and soon earned a promotion to associate vice president.
Branch always has worked at predominantly white universities, so she wasn't intimidated by the idea of coming to a western Montana college.

"I'm always interested in doing the best job I possibly can," she says, "and, as an African-American woman, there are naturally going to be some perspectives that I offer that are only going to be characteristic of an ethnic woman. So I'm pleased to be in a position where I can offer that perspective. I hope to serve in this role with distinction. And hopefully my presence will attract more people of color — be they faculty, staff or students — who will enrich this learning environment with their presence."

Diversity is vitally important for college campuses, she says, "because students need to know how to get along, how to work with, how to team with people who are unlike themselves. It's very difficult to develop that sense of self and that ability to be comfortable with people unlike yourself without having that experience. It's a matter of exposure and being open to that experience."

Branch already made her mark on campus this fall by starting WelcomeFEAST, a free lunch for UM students and employees on the Oval in the center of campus. It gave UM a way to celebrate the start of fall semester while providing information tables about various opportunities offered by Student Affairs and Academic Affairs. "I, along with other members of the administration, thought it was a nice tradition to start," she says.

Though she is still learning the institutional culture at UM, Branch has set three overriding goals for her office: to recruit and retain the best and brightest students, to revitalize UM's declining Greek system and to increase campus diversity. A positive step already has been made toward the third goal, with the formation of the American Indian Student Services program, which will help native students adjust to the University learning environment.

Branch says universities must give students a support network, whether through the Greek system, learning communities or an active residence hall life. They all need to find a niche.

"It's a development process to move students from the freshman year through graduation," she says. "The goal of Student Affairs is to help them succeed."

Jess Roskelley | Teresa Branch | Mehrdad Kia | Sousan Rahimi | Jerry Lamb