On Friday afternoon, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Eric Chasalow announced in a campus-wide email that Jessica Basile Ph.D. ’98 is now serving as the director of graduate student affairs and post-doctoral scholars.

Alwina Bennett had previously filled this role, but, in an email to the Justice, Basile wrote that Bennett took advantage of the retirement package that the University offered last semester and left her position as of June 30. Basile assumed the role as of July 1.

According to Chasalow’s email, Basile first came to Brandeis as a doctoral candidate in Anthropology and began working as the part-time graduate student specialist. Basile then worked in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, joining the school as the doctorate admissions officer and eventually accepting the role of assistant director for financial aid.

In an email to the Justice, Basile wrote that she enjoys “advocating for graduate student needs” and “helping them to create a graduate student community on campus that reaches beyond individual research and programs.”

“It’s an exciting time at Brandeis,” Basile wrote. “There are many ways in which the University is embracing all of the students here, undergraduate and graduate students alike. I am glad to be a part of that.”

Before accepting her new role, Basile spent time traveling in the South Pacific with her family.

Basile wrote that after having lived overseas as a child for six years, she decided to live abroad again with her husband. They spent nine months living in Tonga, New Zealand and Australia with their children, working there in exchange for accommodations. “It was the experience of a lifetime,” wrote Basile.

The Office of Graduate Student Affairs’ website states that its purpose is to serve “as a liaison between graduate students and university administration,” to advise and assist both the Graduate Student Association and the Graduate Student Senate, and to run Graduate Orientation.