As a service organization providing parking and transportation, the campus bookstore, an early learning center, the student union, police and emergency preparedness, and facilities support to three separate institutions, Auraria had picked up an unfortunate reputation on campus: the negative landlord rather than actually serving the community it supported.
I partnered with the CEO to lead an internal project addressing that perception head-on, bringing together leadership across those very different teams to define a shared set of guiding principles for how AHEC would operate day to day. Landing on principles that felt authentic and actionable across teams as different as facilities crews and early childhood educators took real cross-functional buy-in, not just a leadership mandate. The project ran alongside our broader campus branding work under the “One Auraria” identity, giving employees a common internal language for service and accountability that was meant to be lived day to day, not just posted on a wall.
Each fall, I put those principles into action by organizing a campus-wide welcome effort, staffing key points across campus with Auraria employees to give new and returning students directions, maps, and information during the year’s busiest days — and carried that same spirit into the storytelling and messaging of our monthly internal newsletter, 9th Street News.