Dr. Haley Helps Medical Students Succeed While Embracing Antiguan Culture

First Place Winner for Original Hat purchased at Sika’s

Yesterday Dr. Haley went swimming with a stingray, but that adventure is merely a foot note to her daily exhilaration in building on the past success of the Educational Enhancement Department (EED) at the American University Antigua (AUA). The stingray provides a useful metaphor for Dr. Haley’s approach to helping students succeed: quick, sleek and elegant.

She told this interviewer over the phone about the goal of her work at AUA, “The Educational Enhancement Department’s mission is to help students study smarter not longer,” she says, “use multiple exposure to information to help them succeed by using course concepts they’ve developed, understand that medical school academics is different from undergraduate study, and helping students maintain ethical behavior in school and in their professional lives.”

In many ways, Dr. Haley has followed the vanguard legacy of her mother, Dr. Sara Kebe, a physician trained at Howard University who relocated her family to Los Angeles. Dr. Haley herself was a pioneer in everything she did, and faced obstacles as a woman of color, but she spoke philosophically about these challenges. As the first woman and the first African American being considered for a management position at a major university, she thinks she underwent careful scrutiny during the interview process and always felt the need to test and prove herself. But she used this to her advantage, by being a leader in her field with new ideas, a new vision, and acting as a change agent. She looked at every challenge as an opportunity to demonstrate innovation and high standards, but always with her focus on the students she served.

In 1979, she began at UCLA’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools and several promotions followed, making her the first Director of Student Counseling and Recruitment for the School of Theater, Film and Television until her retirement in 2005 after 25 years at the school. Following UCLA, she accepted a position as Executive Director for Student Administration at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science. She also served as Dean of Counseling and Matriculation at Antelope Valley College, a California community college.

Dr. Haley joined AUA after reading about it through her professional associations’ publications, “I was fascinated by the school because it offered students who came from diverse and sometimes disenfranchised backgrounds the opportunity to excel in a quality medical school.”  Since starting in June 2011, she has successfully designed and implemented numerous enhancement programs that are positively influencing student success as they prepare for medical licensure in the United States with the mission to practice in underserved minority communities focusing on healthcare disparities.

With all this going on, she relaxes at her home in the Jolly Harbor Marina and describes life in Antigua as a paradise. Not that she hasn’t had a little bit of culture shock witnessing the exuberant celebrations for Carnival and Independence Day; but she enjoys the liveliness and joy of the Antiguan people. Always interested and active, she joined the Antigua Barbuda Horticultural Society (ABHS) and is working with the group to create a public garden. She is also contributing to an ecological organization on the island, the Environmental Awareness Group of Antigua Barbuda. She recently attended the ABHS Annual tea hosted by Her Excellency the Governor General which she recalls with particular warmth having won first place for her “most appropriate for the occasion” and “original” hat. The first place prize was a round trip ticket to St. Kitts compliments of LIAT Airlines. The hat was an original organic creation purchased at Sika's in historic Leimert Park Village, Los Angeles.

Not surprisingly, she emphatically told this interviewer, “Accepting the position here was one of the best career decisions I’ve made.”

Dr. Roslyn Trezevant Haley holds a doctorate in education with a specialization in educational leadership from UCLA and a master’s degree in public administration from California State University, Los Angeles. 

Dr. Haley is listed in Marquis' Who's Who in America (2000-2012), Who's Who in American Women (2001-2011), Who's Who in the World (2002; 2005-2012), and Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers (2006).

She has contributed to numerous academic publications and participated in academic symposia.

She is featured in Successful Women Speak Out: A collection of personal experience and wisdom from successful American women. Stan Shur (Author, Editor, 2011)