police officer

postdoctoral fellow

program manager

chief of police

research assistant

Howard University

A typically full day during my employment with Howard University included my arrival on campus during mid-morning to organized for the day's work, four days during the week. Saturday was my fifth workday during much of my tenure as an assistant professor at the University.   

My employment activities while employed at Howard (seven years) centered primarily around the review, organization, and preparation for teaching several assigned or selected graduate courses; review, critique, and grading student work related to my teaching of masters and doctoral graduate degree courses; and formal and informal interactions and work with individual, and small student or faculty groups; and teaching one or two evening classes of graduate students on two or more nights during the week.

My personal workday was self-established with daily arrival around 10 a.m. and an "end-of-the-day" following the last class session around 9 p.m., during four days of every workweek. My work week also included a four-hour seminar class held on Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with my arrival no later than 8 a.m., ending at 2 p.m., allowing time for student advisement before and after class sessions.

The culture among faculty colleagues was fairly informal. The workplace culture was an environment primarily of "open door" access with faculty and staff for sharing, advisement, assistance, etc. in review and planning of courses and work activities centered around students or department activities. Our approach primarily was always to serve students as individuals first, and then attend to faculty matters inclusively as they impact our employment and department developments and achievement successes.

Management (Dean of the School of Education, and Graduate Department of Educational Policy and Leadership) during my seven-year tenure with Howard University were easily accessible and open to sharing and working together with a mutually shared vision. Our goal was to support through service for student achievement and success. The environment was professionally informal, with extensive personal and professional support.

The most enjoyable part of my job was the privilege and opportunity to serve and work with graduate students and to know even now still their continuing successes as they in numbers remain in personal/professional contact, several years since our last working directly together.

A typical day in the Undergraduate Office began with me opening the office daily to provide service to the attending nursing students, our professors, the Undergraduate Program Chair, and the Dean of the College of Nursing and Allied Health Services. I managed all of the clerical functions of the office as well as updated the filing systems, website, and provided receptionist services.

 My co-workers were primarily educated professionals and administrators. However I also facilitated university wide relationships with the University Staff and vendors in order to provide for the objectives of the Undergraduate Program Office. 

Working in collegiate environments and with students was a labor of love, rewarding, and satisfying.  As the Administrative Assistant to the Chair and Dean, I managed the undergraduate program office under the instructions of my superiors and collaborated with other team member to ensure workloads were accomplished. Most of my co-workers were women who were dedicated to educating future students. 

The hardest part of my employment was incorporating a cut off time where I would have to leave my work. This was the type of job where there was always more work to do. It was very important for me to manage my time so that I was not working from 7:30am until 7:00pm at night as opposed to the regularly scheduled hours which were 9-5 on Monday through Friday. 

The most enjoyable part of my job was interacting with students, teachers, and co-workers. I enjoyed interacting and communicating with them in person or via technological mediums. However, the most enjoyable parts of the job was to see assist Nursing Students to apply to take the NCLEX, an exam required for nursing licensure as well as seeing their faces when they passed and to see them Graduate

Handling media and marketing for Howard University Hospital and Howard University Health Sciences was one of the most challenging and intense positions I have ever held, largely because so little infrastructure was in place when I arrived.

There was no media and marketing strategy or operation in place when I was assigned to that unit of Howard University.  There was no advertising budget. There was no press release protocol.   There was no workable web page.

Consequently, I had to pretty much create everything while there.  As I was the only media person, I was on call 24/7.  It could get pretty stressful at times.

I did a lot of media work, primarily making hospital physicians as well as other health sciences experts available for various media.  I developed brochures and other marketing material.

One of the biggest accomplishments was getting officials to agree to the first real advertising budget in more than a decade.  They simply had not market the hospital and its services through paid advertisement.  With a budget, I got a chance to do some very creative television, radio and print advertisement.  

I enjoyed the creative process as well as working with the physicians and many of the hospital staff, but it was truly a fast-paced environment.  As it became known that I was the person to go to for media and marketing, people started coming at me from everywhere.

I must admit, that of all the places I have worked, including being an embedded journalist during the war in Iraq, I have never worked harder than I did at Howard University.  

Overall, it was a great learning experience and I met and made friends with some truly special people.

I joined the Howard University Transport Research Center with great expectations of contributing to meaningful research and advancing my career in the transportation industry. However, my experience at this organization has been deeply disappointing, as the workplace environment has proven to be toxic and riddled with several concerning issues.

One of the most distressing aspects of working at this center is the lack of a clear chain of command. The organizational structure appears to be muddled, leaving employees unsure about who to report to or seek guidance from. This ambiguity has created an atmosphere of confusion and inefficiency, hindering our ability to perform at our best.

The second in command, a Research Engineer who holds a managerial position, has been nothing short of an awful leader. Their management style is highly disrespectful and authoritarian, which has led to a decline in morale among team members. Constructive feedback is often dismissed, and employees are met with hostility when expressing concerns or suggestions. This manager's behavior has contributed significantly to the negative work culture within the center.

Moreover, it is disheartening that the boss, the ultimate authority within the organization, seems disengaged from the issues faced by the staff. Instead of addressing our grievances, the boss blindly trusts and favors the second in command, amplifying the sense of powerlessness among the team. The lack of support and involvement from higher management has resulted in a feeling of neglect and abandonment. It should also be noted that the research engineer, who is in a management role, is in a relationship with one of the staff leading to obvious favoritism.


As the Associate Director, I focused on the development of community partnerships with non-profit education, health and social service organizations across DC that provide services to the DC community at large. Utilizing the information from networking, I researched resources on the Howard University campus and developed the concept / issue area into programs.  Program development included internal university networking with faculty/staff, grant / corporate sponsorship research, grant writing,  the recruitment, training and management of an effective team of students within each program to service in the community as volunteers. The volunteer opportunities for students fulfilled student personal interests to serve, course credit, student organization(s) mission(s) and the university's commitment to service.  My work also included the development and execution of special service events (on and off campus) that included hundreds of students, faculty and staff.  Community, social justice, youth development and leadership were central to our efforts.

Howard University is a great place to work. This is where I gained the majority of my work experience. I enjoyed working with the students faculty, staff and administrators in the School of Communications and at the University.  

Some of my duties included the procurement of goods and services, budgeting, processing of hiring documents, producing estimates and expense reports.  I learned to utilize the Financial Records System and PeopleSoft. I was also responsible for maintaining personnel records, reviewing requests for the establishment of new positions, managing employee time and attendance reports. 

 I received several promotions during my employment in the School of Communications and appreciated being valued as an employee. My employment there began as an Administrative Secretary.  I was promoted to the position of Administrative Assistant (Budget Officer) and my final promotion was to the position of Assistant to the Dean.  I did not consider my responsibilities to be difficult because I am always eager to  learn new things, and I like being challenged. I consider myself to be well organized and prioritized my work days accordingly.

Howard is actually a great place to work, It has decent benefits, several social events to attend, it offers to its employees awareness presentations of several things, free messages, programs, good 401k employee match.  The environment forces you to go outside of your normal corporate work environment of just most sitting at a desk.  Great respectful management. Long Christmas and spring break vacation leave.

On the other hand, it can however work on paying employees according to market. It seems to overwork and underpay by at least 10-15%. One person takes the burden of several positions and aren't recognized  or appreciated but just gets more work or is expected to go over and beyond.  It would be nice to be at least recognized by giving a special bonus or something.

Also, processes and procedures are put in place for some departments .   In some departments this is enforced , but for some........ ??Furthermore, constant training needs to be set in place.

Lastly strong personalities ... Strong personalities are needed,but when this interferes in a way that the staff aren't productive because of it.  .. maybe someone needs to look into it..

I worked in the Student Financial Services Office. It was my first full-time job out of college and I hope I never have to experience such foolery in the future. High level managers were not understanding, did not back their employees, never gave any recognition for hard work, and never listened to anyone's suggestions for improvement. People talked down to certain individuals based on positions the individual had there and they did not believe in promotion or promoting from within. I was highly disappointed because my whole reason for working there was because I wanted to finish pursuing my MBA there. After what I experienced at this university I decided to stay at the school I started because I did not want to go through the stress of Howard University. I would not recommend anyone to go to school or work there. What a terrible experience. The only enjoyable thing that came out of working there was working with my peers who the majority of them eventually left too. What a waste of an institution.

I manage the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and work to provide the best customer service to our faculty, staff, students, and visitors on a daily basis. 

I have learned to be diligent in following up on the status of service requests.

I serve as the first point of contact for troubleshooting computer related issues. I manage a group of three students that help me with administrative duties of the department.  I also make sure computer and technical equipment are set up for labs and classes for our department.

My co-workers are great and have their own personalities which make the day to day interaction very interesting. There is never a dull moment.

The hardest part of the job is still pressing on and getting the job done even when resources are not always available.

The most enjoyable part of the job is knowing the students have what they need to succeed and that I could help with a portion of that process.

Typical Day:
I supported operations assisted students and staff and worked with colleagues in a mission-driven environment

What I Learned:
I gained skills in communication organization and problem-solving and learned about higher education and student support

Management:
Management focused on goals supported student success and encouraged professionalism and teamwork

Workplace Culture:
The culture is collaborative and purpose-driven with staff passionate about helping students and advancing education

Hardest Part:
Managing multiple priorities and meeting the needs of students and staff

Most Enjoyable Part:
I enjoyed working at Howard University knowing my work contributed to student success and advancement

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Police officer 10 salaries reported	$52,636 per year
Postdoctoral fellow 7 salaries reported	$63,246 per year
Program manager 5 salaries reported	$68,727 per year
Chief of police 5 salaries reported	$165,000 per year
Research assistant 3 salaries reported	$50,976 per year

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