Professor
Office
259 Stouffer Hall
Mailing Address
206 Stouffer Hall
1175 Maple Street
Indiana, PA 15705
Email Address
Telephone
724-357-4656
724-357-1251
Fax
724-357-7821
Formal Education
- BS - Clarion University of Pennsylvania - Education: Secondary Education/English
- MEd - Ohio University - Educational Leadership: College Student Personnel
- MA - Clarion University of Pennsylvania - English
- PhD - Iowa State University - Educational Leadership and Policy Studies: Higher Education
Professional Experience and Interests
Mimi Benjamin’s interest in student affairs began at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where she served as a resident assistant, orientation leader, and graduate assistant in Housing/Residence Life. Although she considered a career in student affairs at that time, instead she pursued her interest in teaching high school and taught at her alma mater for a year. During that time, she realized how much she missed and enjoyed working with college students, so she enrolled in the College Student Personnel program at Ohio University and began her “official” student affairs career.
After completing the master’s program, she served as a residence hall director for one year and as an assistant director for Residential Life for two years at Plymouth State College (now University) in New Hampshire. She moved to Iowa State University in 1997 and held various roles, including coordinator of residence life, coordinator for academic services, assistant to the vice president for student affairs, and interim dean of students. While at Iowa State, she completed her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Students with a focus on Higher Education in 2004. In 2007, she joined the Residential Programs staff at Cornell University as an associate director, working with such areas as faculty programs, assessment, and summer programs. She was appointed as an assistant professor at IUP in fall 2013.
As an administrator, Benjamin maintained active scholarly and professional involvement, publishing articles and book chapters and coediting Maybe I Should...Case Studies in Ethics for Student Affairs Professionals with Florence Hamrick. Her research interests center on student cocurricular learning, learning community programs, and faculty experiences. She is the editor of Learning Communities from Start to Finish, a New Directions for Student Services sourcebook, and a co-author of Living-Learning Communities That Work: A Research-Based Model for Design, Delivery, and Assessment with Karen Kurotsuchi Inkelas, Jody Jessup-Anger, and Matthew Wawrzynski. She and Jessup-Anger also are the co-editors of the second edition of Maybe I should... Case Studies in Ethics for Student Affairs Professionals.
Benjamin has been a member of the ACPA Commission for Professional Preparation directorate, ACPA Ethics Committee, NASPA IV-East Regional Board, and NASPA 2010 Conference Program Committee; chaired the NASPA Region IV-East New Professionals Institute; and cochaired and cocreated the NASPA Region IV-East Mid-level Professionals Institute. Along with Jody Jessup-Anger, she is co-editor of ACPA Books. She was the recipient of the 2005 NASPA IV-East Mid-Level Professional Award, the 2006 NASPA National Mid-Level Professional Award, and the 2007 Betty Harrah Manuscript of the Year Award from ACUHO-I. She was selected as an ACPA Emerging Scholar in 2010 and a Class of 2020 ACPA Diamond Honoree.
As a member of the IUP faculty, Benjamin has received various local honors. In 2016, she was awarded the IUP College of Education and Educational Technology’s Teacher-Scholar Award, received the Content Pedagogy Award from the IUP Center for Teaching Excellence in 2019, and the 2021 IUP College of Education and Communications Faculty Research Award.
With two degrees in English, Benjamin is an avid reader who is always looking for a good book recommendation. She also likes to spend time in the kitchen and enjoys cooking, baking, and canning vegetables from her garden.
See Mimi Benjamin's vita.