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When she became director of admissions and recruitment at Syracuse University, Nichole Henry said she was determined to not be the type of boss Sandra Bullock was in The Proposal.

“Everybody is like ‘she’s coming, witch is on her broom,’ you know, and everyone starts running,” Henry said. “I don’t want that kind of environment, and I’ve been very blessed and successful to not have that kind of environment.”

Henry said her staff trusts her, and she trusts her staff.

SU students, faculty and staff’s collective trust in Henry made her the best person for SU’s Unsung Hero Award, said Jimmy Luckman, who wrote Henry’s nomination. The annual awards, presented at SU’s 38th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in January, honored individuals who “embody King’s vision” of creating positive change. When Henry discovered she was chosen as a recipient, she was grateful and taken aback.

“I’m just so honored, humbled by it in every sense of the word,” Henry said.

Luckman, who is the associate director for the university’s Office of Academic Affairs, said he’s taken the time to nominate one person for the award each year since 2019 when he came to SU. He said when he reflected on who’s made a strong commitment to the community, Henry came to the forefront of his mind as someone who makes prospective and new students feel at home on campus.

As director of admissions and recruitment, Henry is one of the first faces that prospective students meet in SU’s admission’s office.

“It’s not that she brings them in and then she says ‘good luck,’ she goes further, she finds ways to get involved and support them in different entities, and then also she just gives back to the community,” Luckman said.

Henry emphasized that her dedication in her job is to the students and helping them find the right college fit, regardless of whether it’s at SU.

“Syracuse University is not always the fit, but I want them to walk away and go, ‘Syracuse helped me find my fit, even though it wasn’t Syracuse’,” Henry said.

Henry grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where she said a lack of community resources made education a consistent struggle. But with her parents’ support, she said she made education a priority and ended up earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology and an MBA in marketing and marketing management at SUNY Oswego.

After starting her career in finance at Chase Bank, Henry transitioned to the higher education field when she began working as a residence hall director at SUNY Cortland. Henry said the switch to being surrounded by students every day gave her a renewed energy, and she’s worked in education ever since.

“Being in higher education is great, but you have to be able to relate with students to let them understand that it is an attainable goal,” Henry said. “I think sometimes whether it’s cost or family issues, or whatever it is, students come from different walks of life, and sometimes they need encouragement.”

Kourtney Toxey, Henry’s daughter, pointed to Henry’s caring nature and enduring commitment to working with students. Toxey said Henry’s maintained a passion for her work over 20 years at SU.

“She’s seen the campus at its worst, and she’s seen it at its best,” Toxey said. “She’s helped students who weren’t the nicest and she’s helped students who have gone on to be really successful in whatever career that they pursue in higher education.”

Luckman said Henry weaves her care for others into everything she does at SU and beyond the university in the greater Syracuse community.

Henry – who also works with InterFaith Works and SU’s fullCIRCLE program – is a lead instructor for the university’s First Year Seminar, a required class for first-year SU students to discuss topics related to diversity, identity, bias and socialization. Luckman said he first met Henry when she expressed interest in the FYS position in the spring semester of 2021.

With the majority of students in her FYS classes being white, Henry said she wants those in her section to walk out of the classroom as confident advocates for marginalized people.

Henry also works to give back to students of color through Zeta Phi Beta Inc., a historically Black sorority, of which she is an alumna. She joined the sorority at SUNY Oswego and continues to work with SU’s Pi Iota chapter of the organization, which Toxey also joined. Henry is currently a member of the larger Onondaga County Delta Alpha Gamma Zeta chapter, which she started.

Ericka Love, secretary of SU’s Pi Iota chapter, said she was glad to see Henry receive recognition for her work on and off campus.

“There are a lot of Black women who work in faculty here at Syracuse who don’t get the credit,” Love said. “They do a lot of background work that nobody else knows about.”

Toxey said Henry extends her motherly nature to all members of the sorority. Growing up, Toxey said she knew Henry’s sorority sisters as members of their family. Henry pointed to family life and religion as central priorities.

In addition to her other commitments, Henry is participating in a doctoral program at St. John Fisher University. Henry, currently pursuing a doctoral degree in education, said she’s in the process of writing her dissertation on degree completion for Black males in private higher education institutions.

Marsha Senior, who works with Henry at SU, said she’s been inspired by watching Henry incorporate bi-weekly weekend courses for her doctoral program into an already busy schedule.

“She is one who can do it all, and is doing it all,” Senior said.

Henry said she has a passion for civil rights and social action, and sees it as her civic duty to participate in community action and contribute to positive policy changes. To say no to an opportunity to engage, she said, she would either need to have a full schedule or be out of town.

Luckman said with the lack of acknowledgement for Henry’s contributions over her 20 years at SU, the recognition from the award was long overdue.

“It speaks volumes that she’s the only staff member at SU that was the recipient this year,” Luckman said. “We have to start valuing our staff more.”

Now Henry is finally taking her turn in the spotlight, Senior said.

“I think the title ‘Unsung Hero’ is so befitting because she does so much, and I think she has overcome so many obstacles,” Senior said. “This was just the icing on the cake for her.”

Correction: a previous version of this article stated that Nichole Henry was a member of the Kappa Xi Zeta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta. She is an alumna of the Kappa Xi Zeta chapter, and a current member of the Delta Alpha Gamma Zeta chapter, which she started in Onondaga County. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on February 23, 2023 at 1:35 am

Contact Kendall: [email protected]