By Leah Veldhuisen ’19
This semester, the Butler Center welcomed new members to its staff: Tre Wentling, gender and identity development specialist, and Michelle Stallings, administrative assistant. Both Wentling and Stallings took the time to answer a few questions to help you get to know them and why they’re excited to be a part of the campus community.
Michelle Ann Stallings
What were you doing before arriving at CC?I earned a BA in history and an MA in educational leadership with an emphasis in student affairs in higher education from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. During my undergraduate studies, I was heavily involved with various multicultural student organizations including the Asian Pacific Islander Student Union, Native American Student Union, Spectrum: The Gay-Straight Alliance, and Student Diversity Council.
What are some personal or professional experiences you’ve had either at CC or outside of it that play into your current role?
Personally, being a student leader, specifically within multicultural student organizations, has helped me to realize the significance of actively participating in the campus community. Professionally, each of the positions I held in higher education helped me learn to work with a variety of students, each with their own story and background.
What was the biggest influence on your career path?
Strangely enough, working at a for-profit institution inspired me to work in higher education. I was immersed in a culture that viewed each student as a dollar amount rather than respecting each person as an individual with their own background and journey into college life. Rather than trying to keep the status quo, I was inspired to make each conversation meaningful and focused on the student’s needs.
What have you noticed about CC?
I have noticed that CC is extremely friendly. Titles have less meaning because each and every professional staff and faculty member I have meet really cares about each student they meet.
When she’s not working, you might find Stallings watching movies with her husband and dogs, reading, and traveling. Stop by the Butler Center on the second floor of Worner Campus Center, or email michelle.stallings@coloradocollege.edu.
Tre Wentling
What is your position and how do you think it will impact CC?
The gender and identity development specialist position supports students’ identity development with an emphasis on gender and sexuality. My position also contributes to the campus community in ways that promote learning, discovery, scholarship, and social justice. The transformative possibilities of this position include the opportunity to join the work already underway at CC as well as expand practices that honor the complex lives of CC students, staff, and faculty who diversely embody trans, gender nonconforming, queer, bisexual, lesbian, gay, and asexual identities and experiences.
What were you doing before you arrived at CC?
I am a first-generation college graduate, with a military-dependent history. I was born on a U.S. Air Force installation in Germany and by my 18th birthday had lived in three German states and three American states. Growing up, I attended different school systems: U.S. Department of Defense schools, public schools in the U.S., and a private international school, which made evident how uneven educational systems are, including the dominant values and organizing practices within them. So much moving also taught me about community, culture, and belonging and was likely the impetus of my intellectual journey in sociology. I earned both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs in sociology. I completed my Ph. D in sociology and a certificate of advanced studies in women’s and gender studies at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. My research concerns how individuals with diverse, transgender embodied identities navigate incoherent U.S. policies that regulate identification documents produced at different governing scales.
What are some personal or professional experiences you’ve had either at CC or outside of it that play into your current role?
My journey to becoming more of my authentic self – a white queer transman with intentional commitments to social justice — involved multiple, transformative experiences; much of that assemblage manifested during my undergraduate study. My connections to campus, community, and curriculum, or the three C’s as I call them, necessarily included university staff, faculty, and community members. Uniquely positioned on- and off-campus, a diverse constellation of mentors supported my identity development. They acknowledged my personhood; gave me space to wrestle with tensions and contradictions in my own life as well as our socio-political worlds; listened carefully and offered constructive insights; presented leadership opportunities that were productive and empowering; advocated on my behalf; and over time, some became allied-comrades and friends. The three C’s inform my commitment to students and efforts to offer support, advocate when invited, recommend and discuss critical scholarship, encourage self-reflection, and propose empowering leadership opportunities.
Something you might be surprised to know? Wentling used to compete in country-and-western partner dancing. Stop by the Butler Center to meet Wentling in person, or email tre.wentling@oloradocollege.edu.
