The GLBT Center welcomed its new director, Dr. Charla Blumell, an NC State alum, to the office in July.
Blumell has worked as a health and well-being professional for over 10 years. Last year, she was the assistant director of Health Promotion and Prevention at UNC-Chapel Hill and is currently serving as chair for the LGBTQ Center of Durham for a second year.
“[Health and well-being] work is my passionate work, and it excites me to do that work most days of the week,” Blumell said. “As we all know, nonprofit work requires a lot of lift for multiple reasons, but the work at the end of the day is extremely rewarding.”
Rain Garant, the assistant director at the GLBT Center, and Mich Bowersox, the program coordinator at the GLBT Center, have been helping Blumell settle into her new role.
“I’m very fortunate that Mich and Rain have been carrying the ball and doing all of the things in spite of not having a full team for a while,” Blumell said. “That’s made a huge difference in my transition. It’s actually made it, in some ways, easier.”
Garant said working with Blumell has been going really well so far.
“[Working together] feels very collaborative,” Garant said. “Charla has been asking a lot of questions getting up to speed on things, but it doesn’t ever feel like it’s an inquisition. It feels like it’s a genuine ‘I want to hear your thoughts. I want to get your feedback on how this has been going, and I want to know what our baseline is so we know what trajectory we’re growing in together.’”
The GLBT Center often utilizes partnerships between other campus organizations and groups to plan its programs and events. Bowersox said an important part of getting Blumell acquainted at the Center has been to break down the logistics of these partnerships and get her perspective on the work that has already been done.
“Our office is kind of surrounded by co-creation in a lot of our work,” Bowersox said. “We rely on partnership between other offices and other staff to be able to create the work that we want and with intentionality behind it. So to incorporate Charla in everything that we have been doing, we’ve been trying to share what we’ve been experiencing with creative programming and giving her a little blueprint of the rundowns of each each program that we do, and events, and how we can incorporate her view and her experience and her knowledge that we might have not had previously.”
Blumell said last time she was a part of the NC State community, she missed out on making connections with other students. Now that she is back as a staff member, she has made connecting with students one of her main goals.
“I got my doctorate here at NC State, but I wasn’t actually able to ‘student’ a lot,” Blumell said. “I never got to do anything fun short of graduation that happened several years after that, so I’m really looking forward to creating community with the students, connecting with them, finding out what’s important to them, like what do they need from us as a Center? What do they need from us as a collective and a collaborative? What do they want? From me in terms of leadership on campus? And then what does that look like for our office?”
Blumell said she also wants to focus on building the team at the GLBT Center.
“We have some openings, which is status quo across campus and across higher education,” Blumell said. “So that feels like a more short term goal, but a very important goal. Team dynamics are really huge to me and, when we can be woven in together to do this work really well, it makes such a huge impact.”
Blumell said the best way for the NC State community to get to know her is to hang out with her.
“If folks want to just hang out with me, they can come find me [at the Center] or probably find me walking around campus being nosy, seeing what’s happening, what other folks are doing,” Blumell said. “That’s probably the best way. And obviously folks can email me, and that goes for everybody, especially our students, but faculty and staff, too. I can meet you wherever — we can grab coffee, we can grab tea, we can take a walk on campus. I’m a very physical person, I like to move around.”
Blumell said she is excited for the new academic year.
“I’m looking forward to everything that is next because everything is next,” Blumell said. “I’m looking forward for to creating community with our students, the staff and the faculty and hopefully taking an opportunity and creating opportunity to build and generate the best outcomes we can for our queer community and our students in general.”
To learn more about Blumell and the GLBT Center visit its website or attend one of its events.
