The Military-Connected Faculty and Staff Affinity Group (MCFSA) at American University (AU) welcomes current staff and faculty members who are serving or have served in the United States armed forces or foreign services. We also encourage allies of the military community to join us, including current spouses, children (biological or adopted), and caregivers of those who currently serve or have previously served in the United States armed forces or foreign services.

MCFSA members SERVE the university through Support, Engagement, Retention, Visibility, and Evolution.

Support: MCFSA supports the achievements and endeavors of the military-connected community at AU to inspire belonging and empower all members to reach their fullest potential within the affinity group and at the university as a whole. 

Engagement: MCFSA uses each member’s expertise to engage the military-connected community through mentorship, advocacy, and fellowship. We continuously seek opportunities for engagement and strive to build meaningful connections with military-connected faculty, staff, students, alumni, and organizations at AU and with other military-connected organizations in the broader DC community. 

Retention: MCFSA understands that faculty, staff, and student retention is an important component to AU’s success. We want to create a community where military-connected faculty and staff can collaborate and find support as they carry out the mission of the university. We intend to extend that sense of camaraderie to our military-connected students and alumni as well. In supporting AU’s retention efforts, MCFSA will facilitate the success of our military-connected faculty, staff, student, and alumni communities by elevating their professional and educational experiences.    

Visibility: MCFSA recognizes that making our group visible to campus and community partners is essential to fulfilling each component of our mission. We work with campus partners to advertise group happenings and events across campus and use established internal means of communications to notify the AU community of this affinity group.   

Evolution: As part of AU’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as outlined in the Plan for Inclusive Excellence, we continually adapt and evolve to build the inclusive community AU is striving for. Creating an inclusive community in which our military-connected faculty, staff and students are supported is of utmost importance in reaching this goal. MCFSA continues to look for new ideas, initiatives, and suggestions, and we evolve and adapt to determine what will best serve our military-connected faculty, staff, and students.

MCFSA acknowledges the intersectionality of identities inherent within all individuals. We value and support all affinity groups represented at AU, including other faculty and staff affinity groups as well as alumni and student affinity groups. We realize that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives can only be met when all AU faculty and staff have a sense of belonging.  

Coming soon! We will be updating this section with events and ways to connect with the community. 

Faculty Co-Chair

Nathan Charles
ncharles@american.edu

Staff Co-Chair

Vacant 
 

Communications/Outreach Chair

Madaleine Laird
laird@american.edu