CAHSS Alum is Director of Orientation Programs at Purdue University

Craig Johnson, M.S., 2015 graduate of the College Student Affairs master’s program in NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) currently serves as the Director of Orientation Programs at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. As Director, he oversees the development and execution of online and on-campus welcome programs for incoming undergraduate students. For the fall of 2018, orientation programs at Purdue University welcomed over 8,600 students, the largest in Purdue’s 150-year history.

Outside of Purdue, he is an active member of the Association for Orientation, Transition and Retention in Higher Education (NODA) at the national and regional levels. In 2018, Johnson was recognized as the NODA Outstanding New Professional for Region VII (Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and the province of Ontario), and next spring, he will serve as host for NODA’s 2020 Region VII Conference held at Purdue.  Johnson also serves as a member of the Leadership Operations Projects Team (LOPT) for the Barbershop Harmony Society, a music organization with 22,000 members across North America and affiliated men’s and women’s organizations in more than a dozen countries. As a member of the LOPT, he works closely with a group of Leadership Facilitators who help active BHS chapters align organizational goals to their program and community impacts through a series of active facilitation practices.  Inside and outside of work, conflict analysis and facilitation strategies are critical to the success of his teams and others. “I often reflect back on strategies learned in my time at NSU, and see myself opening doors for others into the conflict, mediation, and facilitation communities.”   Prior to earning his M.S. from NSU, Johnson earned a B.A.A. in Organizational Communication from Central Michigan University. He has been at Purdue University since July 2015.