The IDEC Student Fellows for the Academic 2023-2024 are a group of six undergraduate and graduate students.
The IDEC Fellows play an integral role as student advocates in USM’s Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Council (IDEC). The Fellows lead IDEC’s Student Experience Committee and facilitate campus forums and initiatives, participate in planning and governance, and work directly with USM leadership on behalf of students and the community.
Olivia Ferriter
Olivia Ferriter (she/her/hers) is an undergraduate student in the Honors Program currently majoring in psychology. Born in China and raised in Maine her whole life, Olivia has a passion for advocacy when it comes to human rights. While serving as the IDEC Fellow for Curriculum, Olivia hopes to bring her unique perspective to the table and help grow USM into a safe and inclusive environment for everyone.
Tatiana Jonk
I am originally from Colombia and am bilingual (Spanish and English). A few of my many hobbies consist of cooking, baking, reading, creating art, being active, spending time outdoors, and spending time with friends and family. I am attending USM pursuing my BSN degree, with a minor in Studio Art. My goal is to pursue a nursing career and later study more for an NP degree, hoping to someday own a medical practice. I aim to focus on providing care for minorities, refugees, and immigrants. Alongside focusing on providing care and help for those who struggle with mental health. I became involved with IDEC during my freshman year at USM in the fall of ’21. After taking a gap year, I then returned to the group this school year. I am currently the Programming fellow, I am part of planning out and networking the events the fellows host.
Rika Judd
Rika Judd (she/her/hers) is a student in the PhD in Public Policy program at USM. In her professional life, she currently serves as the Director of Graduate Admissions at the University of New England. Rika has an extensive background in admissions and graduate enrollment management, and has a strong interest in issues around diversity, equity, and inclusion, especially as it relates to enrollment and equitable access to higher education.
Psalms Lovejoy
Psalms Lovejoy (she/her/hers) is an undergraduate student majoring in Chemistry with a minor in creative writing. She also served on the Affinity council for the 2021-2022 school year. Currently, Psalms serves as the Senior IDEC fellow, where she will use her gregarious skills to facilitate campus forums for students by working directly with the university leadership. Coming from California, Psalms wants to incorporate her perspective of life into exposing students to all of the possible resources provided by the university while making sure they are also feeling included. As her role is to establish relationships among students within the USM community, she plans to reach out to as many students as possible of all age ranges, gender, etc., to hear how the university can make one feel more included and involved at USM.
Onyekachi Obi-Okoye
Onyekachi A. Riches is a public policy research scholar in the University of Maine Law School. He is an experienced ombudsperson and certified mediator who teaches both conflict resolution and justice studies internationally. Characteristically cheerful, creative and engaging, Onye brings significant social change experience to the Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Council (IDEC), having lived or worked across six different continents of the world. Onyekachi Riches is privileged to hold advanced degrees in law, organizational management, and sociology. At USM, much of Onye’s work for IDEC is through the Hiring, Retention, and Employee Relations Committee. He serves on the Student Experience Programming Committee also, and enjoys working closely with ALL of lower income, nontraditional, new-to-Maine, graduate, commuter or off-campus, international, minority-classified, Native American, and military-affiliated students and staff.
Dean Syed
Dean Syed is a junior studying Environmental Planning and Policy here at USM. During the 2022-2023 academic year he served as IDEC’s fellow for policy examining institutional policy with a DEI lens. Through 2023-2024 he has been working with affinity groups on campus as IDEC’s fellow for affinity leadership. Please reach out to Dean with any questions or concerns at dean.syed@maine.edu.
Are you interested in the IDEC Student Fellows?
As a USM student, you can become a member and make an impact by facilitating campus forums and initiatives, participating in intercultural program planning, and working directly with University leadership on behalf of students and the USM community.