ASU University Vice Provost and Dean, Graduate College Maria Allison knows first-hand about the significant role that mentoring and academic support can play in empowering people, fueling their potential and shaping their careers.

As a young girl growing up in Albuquerque, N.M., Allison never thought that she would be where she is today. Even though she had known people who had pursued higher education, getting a graduate degree was not something that she thought she would ever do. Instead, she focused her plans on teaching and coaching at the high school level.

After receiving her bachelor's degree from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, she began her career as a high school teacher in Gallup, N.M. where she taught there for three years. The school where she taught included a rich mix of students including those of Navajo, Zuni, Hispanic and Anglo cultures.

During her years there, Allison observed repeatedly the ways in which some educators behaved toward students from more marginalized backgrounds. "Although there were many dedicated teachers, there were some who spoke disparagingly about the minority students in their classrooms," says Allison, the top administrator at the Graduate College.

"It so angered me because it was clear that these teachers didn't believe in, or respect, the students they were supposed to be educating. I then began to think and read about institutional discrimination and ways that it manifested itself in the classroom. It was then that I knew I needed to devote my time to opening doors for those without access, and helping create a more even playing field through educating, mentoring, nurturing and helping students believe in themselves."

In the late 1970s, she went back to school to get her master's degree and she did not think about getting a doctoral degree until a mentor encouraged her to continue her academic career. Up until this point, Allison had only lived in New Mexico, and moving to the Midwest to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign marked a defining moment in her life.

"I thought, I can do this," she says. "I knew I needed to pursue my doctorate and I had to study with outstanding academics in order to be successful in the academic world. My mom was very nervous about me going away -she was convinced I would forget my roots and my family. Instead, though, the experience made me value my background even more and it made me realize that I had every right to be at the table as much as anyone else. I was thrilled that I had the opportunity to return to ASU, a wonderful university in the Southwest, where truly my roots run deep."

After completing her dissertation research on the role of play in Navajo culture, a subject she became interested in while in New Mexico, Allison landed a job at Purdue, where she taught for five years. In 1984, she began her academic career at ASU when she joined the faculty in the School of Community Resources and Development (formerly the Department of Recreation Management and Tourism) in the College of Public Programs. Over the years in that department, she served in multiple administrative capacities including graduate coordinator and department chair. Twenty years later, she was hired as the Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies, where she has led the effort to increase opportunities to all students who desire to pursue a graduate education.

Allison views the essential roles of the Graduate College are to partner with faculty, students, and university leadership to foster and support high quality graduate programs and to shape competitive financial support packages to recruit and retain a bright and diverse graduate student body. Student retention and graduation is another one of Allison's goals.

"If we can't help our students graduate than we haven't done our jobs," says Allison. "Student success is the hallmark of the ASU's mission. Our role as educators is to set our students up for positions of leadership. As a model of higher education, we must provide ongoing, substantial and meaningful support for students, and get students of all backgrounds to realize that graduate education is important and that it must be a part of their futures."