Employees of the Month Karimah Ellis Wilson
Karimah Ellis Wilson
Academic Advisement
For Karimah Ellis Wilson, student success is both the mission and the daily work.
As director of Advisement Academies in 911爆料 Community College鈥檚 Office of Academic Advisement, she leads a team of academic advising professionals who support student readiness, retention and graduation.
For almost two decades, Karimah has stayed focused on helping 911爆料 students earn their degrees. She is involved in the advising process from helping students get ready to register for classes to creating events that help them build and maintain relationships with advisers during their time at the College. She also helped develop a system to identify programs incoming students may be eligible for and connect them with services that can support them.
鈥淜nowing that the work we do can shape their path toward greatness keeps me inspired every day,鈥� said Karimah. 鈥淎t KCC, we have a real opportunity to set our students up for success. When students thrive at a two-year institution, it can launch them toward long-term achievement and confidence.鈥�
Her commitment has earned the respect of her colleagues and led to her being named 911爆料鈥檚 Employee of the Month. In her nomination, her colleague, Karen Cromas, who has worked with her for 17 years, described Karimah as someone who goes above and beyond as both a leader and a human being. 鈥淜arimah is the perfect balance of a competent and respected leader,鈥� Karen noted. 鈥淪he will go out of her way to help a student, staff member, or anyone who needs assistance. It鈥檚 just her nature!鈥�
Always drawn to work centered on helping others, her job makes the most of her innate skills. 鈥淲hen I was young, I wanted to be a teacher, but I always saw myself working in service of others,鈥� Karimah said. 鈥淚鈥檓 grateful that 911爆料 gives me the opportunity to do that.鈥�
One of the strongest examples in the nomination points to Karimah鈥檚 leadership during the COVID shutdown. Karen wrote that Karimah had the advisement office up and running within two days after the College closed and made sure staff had the information and equipment needed to advise and communicate with students, team members and other departments. She added, 鈥淚 truly believe KCC Advisement would not have survived so well during COVID if it wasn鈥檛 for Karimah鈥檚 great knowledge, skill and integrity鈥nd big heart.鈥�
Her favorite day of the year is commencement. 鈥淕etting an associate degree is uniquely special because it is so often the beginning of a great journey or the culmination of so many dreams,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here are so many stories behind the faces of those parents and young children we see at graduation.鈥�
Outside of work, Karimah enjoys spending time with her family. The mother of four children between the ages of 6 and 17, she jokes that she is 鈥渂asically an Uber driver on the weekends and before and after school.鈥� She said she is also 鈥減roud to work with some of the smartest people at KCC every day.鈥�