An Interview with Tiffany Mayse

Name: Tiffany Mayse
Title: Director, Student Engagement
Employer: Northern Kentucky University
Graduation Year: 2005

Bio: Tiffany Mayse has 22 years of experience working in higher education in the Division of Student Affairs. She is the Director of Student Engagement and has served in this role for three years. She oversees all Registered Student Organizations, the Northern Kentucky Leadership Institute, Community Service and many traditional NKU major programs and traditions. Before this role, she served NKU as the Director of Student Leadership Programs for one year. She worked in the Office of Student Life for 18 years and served as the Assistant Director of the Northern Kentucky Leadership Institute, the Coordinator of Student Life and as the Coordinator for the Activities Programming Board. She also worked for NKU Admissions for three summers in Student Orientation.

What skills did you learn from MPA that you took with you to your career?
During the time she was obtaining her MPA Degree, technology was changing rapidly. Learning how to build her own websites and minimum coding languages where some of the skills that she is grateful for learning. When she graduated, NKY was becoming paperless. This elective really helped her understand her audience and how to communicate in the best way to reach her students.

What has been the biggest inspiration in your career?
The biggest inspiration in her career has been her students. Being able to meet them when they first walk on campus their freshman year, then watching them grow and become their own person, to finally watching them walk across that stage.

What advice do you have for current MPA students looking to start a career in Higher Education?
Advises everyone to take an internship.

How has your time in the MPA program contributed to your career?
Getting her Masters Degree in Public Administration helped her to get an immediate promotion from assistant director to a coordinator.

Why did you choose the MPA program at NKU?
She knew that she wanted to work in the public sector, especially a state college. With a Public Administration degree, she wouldn’t “pigeon hole” herself into one specific career. If ever interested in a career change she would have the skills to work in either nonprofit or the government.