New Leadership has taken Root in Student Affairs

By Della Carroll

Linda Brignoni

Linda Brignoni

Linda returns to CSUN as the Associate Director of Financial Aid after a ten year absence. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees at CSUN and began her career in the Financial Aid offices.

"I have always considered this home, it was necessary for me to leave in order to gain some experience but I always felt that I would end up back here. I really appreciate the beauty of the campus, especially compared to other facilities that are not fortunate enough to have so many green spaces."

Her vision for Financial Aid: "We have some crucial positions that are vacant at the moment so I would really like to see us fully staffed. I would also like to see our processes stream lined in order to serve as many students as possible. Working in Financial Aid has always been rewarding to me because I can make difference directly to the students."


Christina O'Dell

Christina O'Dell

Christina O'Dell became the new Director of the A.S. Children's Center in November 2007. She comes to us from Hawaii where she worked as a preschool director for the last four years. In addition she worked on advisory committees to the state legislature regarding early childhood issues, served as the Chairperson for the Hawaii Preschool Directors' Association, as the Vice President of the Hawaii Association for the Education Young Children, and as a board member for Good Beginnings Alliance.

"The CSUN community is different from my previous work communities in that it is a collegiate environment. I am particularly impressed with the focus of the faculty and staff on working so hard to find ways to help the students accomplish their goals and be successful. Also new to me is the opportunity to work for an organization like the Associated Students. It is a remarkable organization in that it is run for the students, by the students."

"My experience thus far at CSUN has been wonderful. It is a beautiful campus; the people have been friendly and approachable; and the families I worked with have been very welcoming."

Her future goals for the Children's Center are "to continue to provide high quality early childhood care and education for the children of student parents of CSUN so that they will be able to accomplish their academic goals while feeling comfortable and confident about where their children are spending their time."


Shannon Krajewski

Shannon Krajewski

Shannon Krajewski joined the Student Affairs team in December 2007 as the Associate Director of Marketing and Programs for the University Student Union. She grew up in Camarillo, went to college in Ohio and spent some time doing marketing at Pepperdine University.

She was surprised by the "friendly atmosphere on campus, it really doesn't feel like a commuter school. There always seems to be students hanging out and it's a really nice walking campus."

One of Shannon's goals is to outreach to other departments to increase collaboration, especially when it comes to planning major events. She is also working to establish an effective evaluation process. "I think it's really important to determine if we are meeting the needs of our students, it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of money on programs if they are going to be ineffectual. It's clear that there is a desire among the students to build school spirit. It's our job to figure out how to do that."