Catawba College

SALISBURY — Catawba College has hired Marcus J. Washington as its new director of housing and residence life, effective Wednesday.

Washington’s addition to the Office of Student Affairs was announced by Jared Tice, dean of students.

Washington has been assistant director of residence life at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, since 2016. His experience in higher education includes being resident director at High Point University, 2015-16; and coordinator of recruitment and pre-college programming, 2013-15, and admissions counselor, 2010-13, at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

Washington was previously an adolescent program specialist at Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pennsylvania; a family-based mental health worker and therapeutic staff member at Pennsylvania Counseling Services in Carlisle; and youth and teen director at the Carlisle Family YMCA.

Tice said Washington’s breadth of experience working with teenagers and college students will be a great benefit to the Office of Student Affairs.

“Marcus is a consummate professional who is committed to each student’s personal growth and development. His inclusive mindset recognizes how diversity enriches a campus and challenges students to look past their own world views,” Tice said. “He is also a first-generation college graduate, as are many of Catawba’s students. That fact alone will serve as an instant point of connection that he will have with our students.”

Washington earned his bachelor of arts degree in human development and family science and his master of arts degree in higher education from Messiah College. He holds professional memberships in the Association of College and University Housing Officers International and the Mid-Atlantic Association of College and University Housing Officers.

His was on the President’s Leadership Council at Messiah College, worked as a youth group leader at Calvary Road Church of God in Carlisle, served as a volunteer youth basketball and football coach at Carlisle YMCA, and was a lead presenter and presentation team participant at Capital Area Pregnancy Center in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

Washington is married to Lydia, and they have two children.