Meet Our Staff

Crystal Nieves ’08, M’23  (She/Her)
Director of LGBTQ+ Life & the QRC

Crystal is a Trinity College alum receiving her B.A. in Public Policy and Law and Human Rights Studies ’08 and her M.A. in Public Policy ’23.

She is honored to have returned to Trinity as the Director of LGBTQ+ Life providing leadership to the Queer Resource Center and serving as a strong advocate for LGBTQ+ equity, access, and inclusion.

Crystal has over a decade year professional experience serving in leadership roles for higher education LGBTQ+ student support services, programming, and policy development.  She returned to Trinity after four years serving as the Assistant Director of the historic Stonewall Center at UMASS Amherst. Prior to her work at the Stonewall Center, Crystal served as the inaugural half-time coordinator of the Trinity Queer Resource Center (QRC) under the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Over those nine years Crystal was able to bring a student-led proposal for the QRC to life providing renewed institutional support for LGBTQ+ students and opportunities for staff, faculty, and student education on matters of LGBTQ+ inclusion. During six of the nine years at Trinity, Crystal worked concurrently as the half-time coordinator of the LGBT Center at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) under their office of Student Activities and Leadership Development where she expanded the center’s programs and presence as a resource on campus and directed intentional and emergent Trans inclusion policies for CCSU and the CSCU system.

Crystal is a proud first-gen, Latina, queer, gender non-conforming, nonbinary/woman-ish human who hopes to be resource for many students on campus. She is a longtime member of the National Consortium for LGBTQ+ Higher Education Resource Professionals, is a Safe Zone Member trainer, and is certified in Mental Health First Aid.

In addition to general LGBTQ+ community support and education, some of her unique interest areas include a focus on intersectional programming, community building opportunities for Queer and Trans Students of Color, improving connections and collaborations with campus partners and cultural centers, and initiatives around intersectionality and intentional allyship.

 

VACANT, Training and Education Coordinator – WGRAC and QRC