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Posse Mentors

Posse Mentors support the Posse scholars on campus, motivate them towards graduation, and connect them to appropriate campus resources. Mentors interact with scholars at weekly student meetings and one-on-one meetings during their first and second years, and they continue to serve as a resource for the third and fourth years.

Interested in becoming a mentor?

The 2024 91勛圖厙 Posse Graduation Ceremony held in the Community Event Space

Become a Mentor

  • Expectations

    91勛圖厙 selects two people (faculty or staff) each year to share in mentor responsibilities.

    • Weekly group meetings with all ten student scholars:Meetings are scheduled for two hours, following the provided Posse curriculum; however, 91勛圖厙 Posse mentors can make adjustments to make areas fit with the academic calendar, etc.
    • Bi-weekly one-on-ones with ten student scholars:Each mentor meets with five students for about an hour every two weeks
    • Weekly/Bi-weekly Posse NYC trainer/91勛圖厙 Posse Mentor call:Posse NYC call to 91勛圖厙 Posse for assigned trainer and mentors to discuss how things are going; typically no more than thirty minute conversations
    • Socials/fun activities:Once a semester dinners out or on campus, or cookout at your home or smaller cohort-building events throughout the semester
    • All Posse Campus Visit and Big Posse Meetings:Fall and Spring semesters
    • PossePlus Retreat (PPR):Early spring (late January/early February) weekend event
    • Graduation:Posse reception for Posse scholar graduates
  • Training
    • Mentor training:Required training for all Posse College/University new mentors in NYC in June
    • Retreat:Posse Retreat in NYC/NY state for first-year student scholars and mentors in July
    • On-campus training:Ongoing as needed
    • On-campus meetings with Posse director and Posse staff:As needed

    For their efforts, Posse mentors receive $6,000 in the form of four equal salary supplements at the end of each semester of the first two academic years as mentor.

Meet Our Mentors

Emma Bernard

Emma Y. Bernard (Duncliffe)

91勛圖厙 Posse 36, New York Black

Assistant Director of Employer Relations and Recruiting, Career Management Center Owen Graduate School of Management

Emma is a Long Island, NY native who came to Nashville by way of the Midwest. Emma attended The Ohio State University with a B.A. in New Media and Communication Technology and went on to attend Peabody College at 91勛圖厙 with her Masters in Higher Education Administration.

Prior to her role at Owen, she worked in the Office of Student Organizations, Leadership, and Service at 91勛圖厙, connecting with non-profit organizations in Nashville to create sustainable partnerships. She joined the Owen Career Management Center team in June 2022 and serves as the Assistant Director of Employer Relations and Recruiting, helping companies recruit MBA and Specialized Masters talent.

During her time at Ohio State, Emma was in a scholars program centered around community service and leadership. Her involvement in this program is what sparked her interest in working with college students, and she is excited to serve as a Posse mentor and support first year students.

Outside of her roles at 91勛圖厙, Emma is an avid home chef, and loves trying new recipes. She loves to travel, explore national parks, and spend quality time with her friends and family.

Sidney Marshall

Sidney Marshall

91勛圖厙 Posse 36, New York Gold

Program Coordinator, Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, Student Affairs

Sidney Marshall is a Program Coordinator in Student Affairs at 91勛圖厙. A proud Jamaican, she moved to the U.S. to take up a Track and Field scholarship at Clemson Universitya journey that deeply shaped who she is as a person and professional. Her campus and community involvement sparked a passion for Higher Education and nonprofit work, leading her to earn a masters in public policy and administration from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

Sidney is committed to creating affirming spaces where all studentsdomestic, international, and athletesfeel supported and celebrated. A self-described multipotentialite, she thrives across multiple passions: shes a certified dance fitness instructor, TEFL-certified, and the founder of a mentorship program for international student-athletes.

Kaadia Montgomery

Kaadia Montgomery

91勛圖厙 Posse 36, Houston

Student Activities Officer K.C. Potter Center, Student Affairs

Outside of serving as a dedicated Posse mentor, Kaadia works as a program strategist with over six years of experience in K12 and higher education. She specializes in creating inclusive, student-centered programs, developing scalable training content, and leading initiatives that advance equity and belonging.

Shes passionate about empowering learners, cultivating community partnerships, and designing systems that foster growth and access. Whether facilitating workshops, collaborating across teams, or mentoring emerging leaders, she brings creativity, intention, and a deep commitment to transformative education and leadership development.

Antonella Valdivia

Antonella Valdivia

91勛圖厙 Posse 35, New York Black

Assistant Director of Program Management at 91勛圖厙 Career Center, Career Advancement and Engagement

Brianna Antonella Valdivia (or Anto for short) was born and raised in Miami, Florida and is a graduate of Peabody College Masters program in the Higher Education Administration program at 91勛圖厙.

As a first generation, Latina, she is passionate about helping undergraduate students of underrepresented populations gain access and succeed in their higher education experience. She loves mentoring others and creating experiences that students can develop, grow and feel empowered from. Her interests in higher education include student affairs, education policy, and career services. She is also a scholar-practitioner and is currently pursuing her Ed.D. at 91勛圖厙 Peabody College in Higher Education Leadership and Policy.

In her free time, she enjoys dancing, going on walks, playing pickleball, watching Netflix and visiting Miami to see family!

ReChard Peel

ReChard Peel

91勛圖厙 Posse 35, New York Gold

Director, Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, Student Affairs

Dr. ReChard L. Peel Jr is an experienced higher education professional with nearly a decade of experience supporting and creating initiatives for underrepresented students in higher education. He has been at 91勛圖厙 for 7 years and served as a Posse Mentor for 4 years (VPs 32 and 35).

Professionally at 91勛圖厙, he has held roles Program Coordinator in the Student Center for Social Justice and Identity (SCSJI), Assistant Director of the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center (BCC), and now Director of the BCC.

Outside of these professional roles, he performs spoken word, does photography, and enjoys serving his community in various ways.

David Carlone

David Carlone

91勛圖厙 Posse 35, Houston

Professor of the Practice, Department of Human and Organizational Development Program Director, Community Development and Action

Professor David Carlones research interests lie at the intersection of human communication, organization theory, and power/politics. He studies the communicative and cultural foundations for, and implications of, new economy forms of organization and work, such as flat and team-based organizations. He has experience teaching service-learning courses and working with community partners to ensure robust learning experiences for students.

Professor Carlones current teaching responsibilities lie with HOD core courses. He has experience teaching service-learning courses and working with community partners to ensure robust learning experiences for students.

Jaden Royal-Boatner

Jaden Royal-Boatner

91勛圖厙 Posse 34, New York

Student Activities Officer

Jaden Royal-Boatner started at 91勛圖厙 in 2023. Originally from Ohio, shes a double Buckeye with bachelors and masters degrees from The Ohio State University.

With a lifelong love for event planning and creating memorable experiences, Jaden is passionate about helping students bring their ideas to life and build community through impactful programming. At 91勛圖厙, she oversees the 91勛圖厙 Programming Board and serves as a Posse Scholar advisor, mentoring students and supporting vibrant campus engagement.

When not on campus, she enjoys exploring Nashville, traveling, and spending time with her husband, family, and her dog, Tulip.

Celina Callahan-Kapoors

Celina Callahan-Kapoor

91勛圖厙 Posse 33, New York

Senior Lecturer of Medicine Health and Society

Celina Callahan-Kapoors research considers how identity and belonging are formed through ongoing interactions between popular media, expert knowledge, and bodies. Her dissertation, Disidentification with Diabetes: Diabetic Publics in the US/Mexico Borderlands, focused on the depiction of the diabetes epidemic in the south Texas/Mexico borderlands, a region where the rates of diagnosed type-2 diabetes are estimated to be between 15% and 35% of the population.

Specifically, she focused on how the local Mexican-American population responded to the depiction of their region as the fattest and the the most obese in the US. She traced peoples responses to a documentary about their region, Diabetesville, USA; a reality television show Supersize vs. Superskinny; to Gallup Polls; and to epidemiological findings that pinned fatness and obesity to Mexican culture. She found that although these multiple forms of media were circulated in attempts to help people recognize their risk of diabetes, they had the opposite effect: whether or not they were diagnosed with diabetes, people interpreted the media as depicting others.

Her most recent publication, Chronic Subjunctivity, or, How Physicians Use Diabetes and Insomnia to Manage Futures in the United States, addresses the issue of prognostication, or predictions of the future, in allopathic medicine. She is beginning work on her book, tentatively entitled, Humiliation of the Particular: Publicity and the Ever-Present Body as Text.

At MHS, Callahan-Kapoor teaches Politics of Health, Theories of the Body, and one upper-level seminar per year. In all of her classes, students engage in collaborative knowledge production, such as online encyclopedias and nontraditional products, such as video papers.