How MassURC Conference Coordinator Alice Feldman Organizes One of UMass’ Biggest Events
By Mahidhar Sai Lakkavaram
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Staff Spotlight: Alice Feldman
Alice Feldman is the Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference (MassURC) coordinator at Commonwealth Honors College (CHC). In her role, she leads a team of conference assistants and works cross-functionally with various teams in the college.
“My background is in large-scale event planning and organization. I run an annual Music Festival in the Catskills. It's 3500 people and 3 days outdoors — and I've run conferences in the past, but not at the scale of MassURC,” she explained.
She’s also worked in higher education and developed new programs previously, like at McGill University, where she started an Off-Campus Fellows program for students to connect with each other and share resources.
Prior to the Honors College, Feldman worked in nonprofit development and in the music industry, where she was at a booking agency doing contract administration and working on initiatives focused on cultural development through entrepreneurship. “I've had a very varied career,” she said.
As the MassURC conference coordinator, Feldman works closely with various stakeholders, like director of communications Matt Medeiros, associate dean for student recruitment, inclusion, and success Ann Marie Russell, and coordinator of events and programs Ashley Braziel.
She also has three student assistants that work on logistics and coordination of all the different parts of the conference. “My role is in just project managing, really, the entirety of the conference,” she explained.
Feldman oversees many different aspects of the event. There’s a physical side to it — like securing the venue, choosing the right equipment and working with vendors, but also a scheduling side to it as well, like developing the conference schedule, managing sales, and coordinating with sponsors and all 28 campus partners. She also does communications work, where she liaises with students at UMass and the other colleges and gets resources and information out to them.
In addition to the conference, Feldman works on student success initiatives at the Honors College. One of her projects involves centralizing resources for underrepresented minority students and establishing a database that filters what resources are available for these students based on their different affinities and identities.
She also works with the Emerging Scholars program and is the teaching assistant for their first-year seminar, where she helps students with preparing applications for different programs. She also helps administer and coordinate some of the Honors Thesis workshops.
Feldman's favorite part about working with CHC is the students and staff she interacts with: “They're really driven, talented, skilled, motivated, and visionary — and I feel just very lucky to be able to work with them,” she said.
She likes that she can help lead them through a project and give them different opportunities to develop their leadership skills by doing work they’re interested in. She explained, “That's one of the nice things about this conference is that there's a lot of different areas for our [student and professional] staff to contribute to.”
Feldman joined CHC so she could “service the new emerging generation of folks who are going to become future leaders.” As for the future, she hopes to see the college be a leader on campus both nationally and internationally.
“[I want to see it be] truly radical, inclusive, brave, courageous, and supportive for its staff and students in every possible way,” she explained. She hopes to see inclusive programming for students from the moment they enter to the time they exit that focuses on “having each and every single student discover what they're truly passionate about and being supported in a 360-degree way with accessing those passions and working towards them,” she said.
She hopes to encourage students to dream big and to make those dreams a reality. “I know our leadership is definitely on the same track and they're on board with that.”
“No matter what [students are] deciding to do, no matter how they're deciding to do it, no matter what status they have, every single student should be able to enter, stay, and leave the college in the best way possible,” Feldman said.
Alice Feldman is one of many college staff being highlighted through this series. Learn more about the Honors College Team online.
Featuring
Mahidhar Sai Lakkavaram
Mahidhar Lakkavaram is a communications assistant in Commonwealth Honors College.
