About Jaime
Jennifer A. Nolan “Jaime” EdD — educator, author, and community builder.
Biography
For over 30 years, Jaime dedicated her career to higher education — a field she has always felt deeply passionate about. In 2023, she stepped away from academia, closing a meaningful chapter as the Associate Vice Chancellor of Community, Equity, and Justice at Washington State University.
Her academic journey began at Washington State University, where she earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees in American Studies. Later, driven by a desire to better understand and serve students, she pursued her doctorate in higher education at the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation — “Uncovering Beauty in a Narrative of Tragedy: Native Students Counter Narratives to Deficit Ideology” — was a deeply personal project that allowed her to learn from Native students' lived experiences, emphasizing the importance of positionality and listening with humility.
Throughout her career, Jaime has worn many hats: program developer, educator, advocate, and community-builder. Teaching Women's Studies and Chicano Studies at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Minnesota was especially rewarding, as was co-creating and teaching “The Dynamic Complexity of Identity in a Multicultural World.”
One of her proudest accomplishments was founding the Breaking Bread program at Colgate University, which brought people together to build bridges and foster partnerships across lines of difference. Seeing this initiative replicated at other universities reaffirmed her belief in the power of honest dialogue and coalition-building.
At the core of her work is a commitment to reflexivity, humility, and critical thinking. She strives to embody these values in all she does, believing that building truly equitable and just communities begins with sincere self-reflection and a willingness to grow. Ultimately, her journey has been shaped by the people she's met, the stories she's heard, and the communities she's served. Working toward justice and equity is not just her profession — it is her passion and her purpose.
Personal Statement
Being in Service and Doing the Work
For nearly 30 years, Jaime has devoted herself to the work of community, equity, and social justice in higher education — not just as a professional pursuit, but as a calling deeply rooted in her personal story and identity. The path she has chosen isn't always easy or popular; in today's climate, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives often face harsh scrutiny, politicization, and misunderstanding. Yet, this commitment remains central to who she is and what she believes is necessary for meaningful change.
She brings her lived experience, education — including a terminal degree — and countless hours of training and research to this field. At the same time, she is continually reminded of how much she doesn't know, which keeps her grounded in humility. She is not the authority on anyone else's experience, and she strives to approach every interaction with genuine openness and an awareness of her own positionality and privilege.
Rebecca Solnit's words resonate deeply: “The task of calling things by their true names, of telling the truth to the best of our abilities, of knowing how we got here, of listening particularly to those who have been silenced in the past... is each of our tasks.” Her hope is that, despite the politics and resistance, we can come together — personally and collectively — to remake our world with care, humility, and unwavering commitment, and begin to heal our very damaged shared sense of humanity.