“Most people say that I am … known as the campus auntie or campus mama or mama RD … but I think one of the students that transferred said it best. He said that when he talks to me, it’s like talking to an auntie at a cookout.”
Mrs. Sharina Hudson recently received a new title as the Associate Director of Residential Education. While she will be doing most of the same things as before, she will also get to focus a bit more on the educational side.
“I think students know that they have a safe space with me. They know that they’re not going to be judged… I would hope that they would feel that they can talk to me about absolutely anything. I would still hold them accountable, but I would love them through it.”
Hudson attended the Mid-Atlantic Association of College and University Housing Officers (MACUHO) 2026 Annual Conference from Oct. 16 to 17 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She went with Kennedi Sullivan, the Resident Director of Zone Two (Gallup, Hainer and Gough). This conference focused on allowing Residence Life and Housing professionals to share some of their best practices, learn from each other and refine their approaches to student support.
One of the enjoyable aspects of this conference was the opportunity “to meet lots of different people from different colleges and universities in the Mid-Atlantic region,” Hudson said. “They had back-to-back sessions; it was like six sessions running at a time … And they had like two in a day and then two closer to the late afternoon … They had a keynote speaker and … Some social events at night.” These sessions included helpful training information for both resident directors and resident assistants. Overall, it was a very informative and enjoyable conference.
One thing Hudson had the opportunity to do was host a session for others at the conference: “I did Sit with Me, which is a presentation on self-awareness using the play on my own grief narrative. Challenging people to sit with me and pay attention to their own body language, their thoughts, their emotions and even their spiritual selves.”
“I challenge them to stay … because a lot of people can hear stuff right? A lot of people can sit with a person and make space for them to hear whatever the issue is, but a lot of people don’t choose to stay.”
When asked what she meant by choosing to stay Hudson said, “They’re leaving in some way or fashion, whether that is emotionally they are leaving [or] physically they are leaving because they are tapping their foot or they are looking around or their brain’s thoughts are on what they’re going to eat later that night, A lot of people don’t fully stay.”
This is the same presentation Hudson gave to the Resident Life staff for their summer training in 2025. Both times she had a very positive outcome and compliments on her session, but at the conference she got physical proof of how many people her session impacted.
Hudson won the Regions Best Award for the best session presented during that conference. When asked how they described her presentation she said, “they were like this presentation was very impactful, full of compassion and then somebody made a quote like this is the best presentation I’ve ever been to.”
When asked about how receiving the award made her feel, she said, “I would have never in a 1,000 years thought that a season of my life that attempted to destroy me would be something that would bless other people.”
Hudson is a presence on campus who may not always get the recognition she deserves for everything she does for students, but finally got some with this award. If you need someone to not only sit with you but stay, she is a great resource to find that person.
“My hope is that when people read this, that they can find somebody that can sit with them, but that can also stay,” Hudson said.
