Staff: Audra Thomas

Audra Thomas has mentored hundreds of students in her 25 years at East Carolina University, working to ensure they feel like they belong and can find support to succeed in and out of the classroom.

Audra Thomas enjoys working at the Main Campus Student Center and the Health Sciences Student Center where she serves as director of student center operations

“I want to make sure they leave here with a positive experience, leave here with life skills, and they leave here knowing that they belong, and they can do whatever they put their minds to do,” she said. “And I’m here to support their efforts.”

Thomas is director for student center operations in the Main Campus Student Center and the Health Sciences Student Center, which act as welcome centers for ECU. Her goals are to meet the needs of facility guests, employees and more than 50 student workers she supervises and trains in customer service, safety and emergency protocols.

“Sometimes people aren’t sure about where to go on campus, so when they’re not sure, they always come to the student center,” Thomas said. “We get amazing questions.”

By phone or in person, they’ve been asked everything from “can you tell me the direction the wind is blowing outside” and “can I get the phone number to Domino’s” to “where can I donate my body at ECU?”

“I try to make sure the students are equipped to answer the questions or know how to navigate our ECU website for ECU questions,” Thomas said. “My years of experience here have helped me to equip our students with information they wouldn’t normally know. It helps them to grow in their knowledge of ECU as well just because I’ve been here so long.”

The goal is to make sure people feel welcome and know that ECU student center employees are here to help.

“We may answer the same question 500 times, but we will answer it with care every time. That’s important for me,” she said. “Even though it may be the same question, it’s the first question for that person.

“We don’t have typical days; no two days are the same. We could have the same issue, but it’s not always solved the same way. So I get the joy of using creativity to sometimes solve and figure out things and help the students do the same.”

Through the years, Thomas has demonstrated the importance of teamwork and building relationships, so students gain people skills, like how to talk with others and how to listen, that are important to life in general.

“I believe in the importance of having a team around you because no one person can do everything. The students become important in their roles so that helps them to understand the importance of work responsibilities and understanding this matters,” she said. “‘Teamwork makes the dream work’ has been one of my big sayings for many years. We need a dream for the team, and we need the team for the dream.”

Thomas was featured in a video at the 2024 University Day celebration focusing on student success. In addition to student employees, she has advised multiple student organizations, and some have gone on to compete in regional competitions.

“I just love our ECU students and being a part of their experience,” she said in the video. “I get to see these young people learn time management, juggle heavy class schedules and several of them have been promoted into leadership roles. Belonging, engagement and support — that’s why student success is ECU’s number one priority. I am honored to be a part of the Pirate Nation team.”

Her message is that everyone at ECU plays a role in student success.

“Our students matter. They are valuable. They’re great learners. And I want them to understand that they each contribute something. And it’s all the little somethings that make the big thing,” Thomas said. “Recognizing that we all have a role to play in their development, no matter what your position is at ECU, you impact students whether you believe it or not.”

Personal growth also comes from creating an environment where it’s OK to make mistakes, she said.

“I believe that this is a place where they can make mistakes. And mistakes aren’t going to sink their lives. This is their learning lab, and I’m just the lab director,” she said. “Failure is an event; it’s not a person. Because you fail or you don’t get it right, that’s not who you are. That’s something that you can grow and learn from.”

In addition to Thomas’ work, family is an important aspect of her life. “My mom has been supportive throughout my life. My daughter is an amazing young lady. I love being a Nana to my grandson!”