Heartfelt Farewell and Joyful Welcome: Beth Osteen Retires and Heather Griswold Joins HLP
After 15 wonderful years, Beth Osteen has retired as the Office Manager of the Hart Leadership Program. Beth has been a remarkably effective and genuine leader within the Sanford School of Public Policy. She has facilitated every successful program that the HLP has initiated or grown over the past decade and a half. With every expansion of our work, Beth has, without fail, made sure that all our outstanding Duke students not only get their fellowship stipends in a timely fashion, but also have health insurance, faculty mentors, a sympathetic ear, and was always prompt with responses to innumerable questions. Beth understood how to link broader pedagogical aspirations to the everyday details that make classes, events, and student plans for community-based research possible and successful.
In short, Beth has been an extraordinary colleague and friend. All of us at Hart have benefitted from Beth’s abiding humor, straight talk, and pedagogical insights. We owe her a great debt and we will miss her, but are delighted to know she and her husband, Hugh, will finally have time to enjoy their hard-earned retirement together. We wish them the very best!
But as Alexander Graham Bell once said, “When one door closes, another opens.” The Hart Leadership Program is excited to welcome Heather Griswold to the Hart Leadership Program as our new office coordinator and financial manager. A New York native, Heather has lived in North Carolina for the past 25 years, working most recently at the Sanford Career Services Office. In 2004, she graduated magna cum laude from North Carolina State University with a bachelor’s degree in communications. “Going back to school not only benefitted me, it helped teach my daughter, who was also a college student at the time, and my son that learning doesn’t stop when you turn 21 or graduate college,” states Heather, “you can make a career change anytime and expand your education in whatever field you’re interested in.”
Heather is no stranger to Duke University. After working at NC State University and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, she brought her talents to the Nasher Museum of Art as their development associate before making her way to the Sanford School of Public Policy. As the Office and Data Manager at the Sanford Career Center, Heather worked closely with all of Sanford’s students, helping guide many of them through their summer internship process.
Heather brings experience with students, programmatic vision, and genuine enthusiasm for HLP’s mission to her new position. “I’m really excited to be here and look forward to meeting the students and professors, and hit the ground running,” states Heather, “supporing the Hart Leadership Program appeals to me because of the the opportunities they offer to our students.” Heather’s commitment to and experience fostering transformative student engagement outside the classroom make her an ideal fit for the Hart Leadership Program. We are delighted to welcome her to the HLP!