Staff Center Showcase Event

Brittani Brown
Associate Vice President, Administration
Finance & Administrative Services

Coming from a household of public servants, Brittani Brown’s passion for community contribution was instilled at a very young age. While public service was never in question, her professional career looks more like a jungle gym than a ladder. She has moved between staff and management roles many times before landing in her current role as Associate Vice President of Administration in the VPFAS office. She has often fought feelings of imposter syndrome, especially when starting new positions or taking on additional projects. Her self-doubt has posed both barriers and challenges to her success. She is also a mother of two who is constantly searching for balance between a professional career, her family, and her own self-care. 

Norma Larios
Assistant Vice President, Divisional Operations
Student Affairs

Norma Larios is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants and the first generation in her family to complete a college degree. Due to the combination of these identities, along with becoming a teen parent, she was often told both formally and informally to scale down her academic dreams and professional expectations. While she is a self-proclaimed “accidental success story”, today, Norma has more than 15 years of higher educational experience within Student Affairs at California State University San Marcos. Norma currently serves as the Assistant Vice President of Divisional Operations for Student Affairs, and she credits her professional successes to people taking a chance on her, her mentors and her quest for continued growth and self-improvement.

After 20 years in the private sector working in finance, entertainment and technology, Justin Lewis started his career in higher education at CSUSM. It was a big shift, but one that he believed would be worthwhile and rewarding. He's had the opportunity to serve Student Affairs in several capacities ranging from resources and operations to developing student academic support programs.

Despite his own "traditional" pathway through college, grad school and working on a terminal degree, he has challenged himself to find innovative and unexpected applications of his education. He learned early on that education is a vehicle, not a pathway, and we decide the direction that it will take us!

Susan O'Connor
Director, Staff Center
Finance & Administrative Services

Susan O’Connor was 26 when she decided to head back to school. A first-generation college student, working full-time, it took her nine years to receive her bachelor’s degree, four for a master's degree and another five years before she was promoted to a management position. She never thought about a path leading to management and credits her supervisor at the time for seeing something that she didn’t in herself.

Susan was first promoted to an MPP in January 2018 and currently serves as the director for the CSUSM Staff Center. Her current position allows her to follow her passion for life-long learning and helping others succeed.