The Hope Center Welcomes Three Talented Teammates
April 27, 2021
The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice today is announcing new team members to support #RealCollege initiatives for student-ready colleges and universities as part of its strategic organizational growth within the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University.
The Center welcomes Associate Director of Finance & Administration H.J. Omar Mitchell, EMBA, MSOD; Senior Policy Analyst Tom Hilliard; and Communications Specialist Alyson Semigran. Their expertise will assist The Hope Center’s action research, technical assistance, policy and advocacy, and communications centered on helping students succeed despite challenges from food and housing insecurity.
Hilliard recently served as senior advisor to the New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education, where he managed high-priority initiatives including strengthening student success, connecting educational attainment to the workforce, and relations with legislative and institutional leaders, as well as convening an advisory group on COVID-19 response. Hilliard is known for his expertise in developing creative policy solutions to empower and to serve low-income and minority youth and adults to bridge the boundaries between programs and to bring effective strategies to the attention of policymakers.
Returning to Temple University, Mitchell has extensive experience in the profit and non-profit sectors, serving as president of OMS Consulting, LLC, for the last nine years. Mitchell spent 18 years in higher education working at several major universities including The University of Pennsylvania, where he served as the business administrator for The Wharton Schools Zell-Lurie Real Estate Center; Temple University as the director of finance & administration for the School of Social Work, and the director of finance and facilities for the Temple Libraries; and at Arcadia University as the interim associate vice president for finance & administration.
Semigran joins the communications team as a Temple University graduate, having earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism. She is continuing her education here at Temple, studying for her master’s degree in social work. She previously worked at Jefferson Health, PetSmart, NBCUniversal, and Entertainment Weekly in a variety of communications roles that included content creation and editing.
These new team members will support and amplify The Hope Center’s new initiatives in 2021: The #RealCollege Research Collaborative, The #RealCollege Institutional Capacity-Building Cohort, and the #RealCollege Virtual Journey.