Esther Philip
Associate Director of Student Engagement
AA
Bio
Esther Philip (she/her/hers) currently serves as the Associate Director for Student Engagement. Under her portfolio is managing and improving food insecurity initiatives, student affinity engagement, and supporting student activism. Previously, Esther was an AUx Instructor and Advisor for 5 years since its inaugural year. She is a Michigander who attained her B.S. in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in “Women and Leadership in Healthcare” and a minor in “Women and Gender Studies” at Grand Valley State University. After working in the medical field and corporate world for seven years as a first-generation American, Esther realized she valued the empowerment and development education provides to address systemic and community issues. Therefore, she attended Clemson University in South Carolina for her Masters in Education in Counseling Education. At Clemson, she worked in their multicultural center for social justice education, where she found her true passion in dialogue and creating inclusive learning environments. During this time, she developed and taught curriculum for peer dialogue facilitators and fostered conversations for all freshmen students surrounding social identities and using the tool of dialogue to talk about difficult subjects. Esther also has an obsession with shoes, her family and friends, trying new food, exploring new places, and her cat child Theo who thinks it’s a dog.
