Neleen Leslie is a doctoral student in Florida State University (FSU)’s School of Communication, where she specializes in Multicultural Marketing Communications research.

Neleen was recently elected to serve as President of the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS) starting January of 2014.  She became involved with NAGPS through the Congress of Graduate Students (COGS), which she joined in 2011.  As the assembly representing graduate and professional students at FSU, COGS advocates for student rights and offers funding to grad student organizations on campus as well as to attend academic conferences.

Supporting COGS as their Deputy Speaker for Communication has provided Neleen with unique networking opportunities.  She has connected with FSU student leaders, various university administrators and those at other institutions across the U.S.  Through her involvement, Neleen started to attend conferences of COGS’ parent organization, NAGPS.  This association represents all grad and professional students in the U.S.  NAGPS is actively involved in advocacy efforts on issues that affect grad students, such as open access, immigration reform, reducing graduate student debt, and federal funding for research.

In 2012, Neleen was elected to the NAGPS board as their Director of Communications, which eventually led her last month to run for president.  The election took place at the 2013 NAGPS Annual National Conference on Nov. 7-10 at Western Michigan University.  The selection process is decisive and one must have ample experience to be eligible.  Each university gets one vote, and delegates from each school must decide as a group who to choose.  The candidate with the majority of votes from all of the attending universities wins the election.

As NAGPS’ President-elect, Neleen hopes to increase the association’s national profile, and would like to leverage her marketing background to achieve organizational goals.  She remarked, “I look forward to leading the 2014 Board.  I want to positively impact the lives of graduate students all over the country.”

In her home country of Jamaica, Neleen attended the University of Technology.  She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing with a minor in International Business.  After graduation, Neleen worked for three years in marketing for a local distributor in Jamaica.

One of her undergraduate professors noticed her passion to succeed and suggested she apply for Fulbright Scholarship. After being awarded the Fulbright scholarship in 2010, Neleen moved to Tallahassee to pursue a master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communication at FSU.

Neleen is appreciative to the FSU Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication, and the School of Communication for its encouragement.  She said, “They have been very understanding and supportive of my work with COGS and NAGPS, which is not always common for PhD students.  I am tremendously grateful for this vote of confidence.”

Neleen encourages graduate students at FSU to join COGS.  She mentions, “It is a great way to get more involved on campus and was the gateway to my involvement with NAGPS.  It is a chance to have a say in the process and allows you to take initiative to be a part of the machinery that is making constructive changes.”  Her motivation to stay involved in these organizations gives her feelings of accomplishment, especially when she is able to positively impact students’ lives.

Article By: Stephanie Romans; Edited by: Natalie Kates