Planning for the future
Position: Coordinator for CHC events and forensics
Guilty pleasure: Staying up too late playing competitive games or making music on my computer.
What’s in the fridge: Cold brew coffee and Red Bull!
Favorite movie: "Hilda and the Mountain King"
Why I like working at UO: The lush outdoor spaces, unique architecture, an endless variety of campus activities, and diverse values. I’m happy to have finally found my home in the Honors College among outstanding peers and inspirational students.
Favorite part of my job: Fostering unique, curated experiences for a community that I’m a part of. And seeing lifelong memories being created by students and those rooting for them is a moment of magic.
Moving through the offices and classrooms of Chapman Hall, Alyssa Travis usually finds herself on a mission as the Clark Honors College coordinator of events and forensics. On any given workday, you can find Travis at the helm of organizing some of the college’s signature events.
Recently, she led a presentation for administrators working on the Three Minute Thesis Competition, pointing out at several junctures that most of the deadlines had been met. She warned, though, that there was still a lot of work to be done.
“Never let your guard down when the planning progress looks good on paper,” Travis says. “You never know what variables will come out of the woodwork, so it’s crucial to remain vigilant.”
Her next stop was a meeting with a select group of CHC staff who worked together to get teaching faculty to sign letters for prospective Honors College students. She set some deadlines for the group and wrote out a reminder about what the next steps should be.
A little later, she retreats to her office in Chapman to power through emails and gather information for the UO Forensics Team’s upcoming debate tournament in Arizona.
Travis, who has been in the role for less than a year, serves as the glue for the Honors College and its events. In her role, she handles small events that assist faculty and staff but is also the lead organizer for the college’s biggest events – the Three Minute Thesis Competition and graduation planning.
“Alyssa is incredibly talented at balancing so many complicated pieces of event planning at once,” says CHC Dean Carol Stabile. “Her ability to juggle all those balls without dropping a single one and still have time and energy left over to check in with colleagues and students is so impressive. Her philosophy of event planning is grounded in nurturing inclusion and joy. We are so lucky to benefit from her skill and commitment to our mission.”
Travis' need to bring clarity to chaos comes from her love of nature and being outdoors. Her main hobbies – hiking and rock climbing – keep her centered. She recalls the first time she drove through Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
“I drove through this tunnel and the whole valley opened up,” Travis recalls. “I literally sobbed...it was ethereal. That sense of serenity is what I like to share and create with others.”
Travis grew up in a small town in Washington state, near Mount Rainier. Stepping into the backyard, she had a breathtaking view of the mountain. “It was huge,” she says.
She remembers spending a lot of time on the mountain, hiking, snowboarding and being ensconced in nature. And she also found she had a calling for event planning when she began working at a seasonal farm in her hometown at age 12.
The farm where she worked held fall harvest events that Travis oversaw, including corn mazes and pumpkin patches. She checked tickets, put up signs, and directed people to specific areas. “I was given a ton of freedom and responsibility...managing a big picture thing,” she says. “It would be crazy busy for hours, and then it would be over.”
She recalls patterning her event planning on her approach to climbing. She taught herself to think about a work project like approaching a puzzle – start sometimes in the middle or on a corner but have confidence that the puzzle eventually will be completed.
“That breeds a lot of spontaneousness,” she says. Today, “it allows me to act on moments of passion or piqued interest. That’s why I love events: because they’re always different.”
After high school, she went to Eastern Washington University, where she majored in recreation and tourism management. She also picked up a minor in business administration.
One of her first event jobs was working as a conference specialist for Event Producers, a small company in Monroe, Wash. She traveled across the country, setting up conferences, developing marketing plans and negotiating contracts with vendors. Over time, she worked her way up the ladder to a conference manager position. Her supervisors saw Travis as invaluable.
“My favorite thing about her is her motivation,” says Emma Nelson, who oversaw the work Travis did. “She’s just a total go-getter.”
Nelson and her boss managed most of the events, splitting them up between them. Travis had to work all of them, supporting her supervisors to ensure each client obtained a positive experience.
“We would be totally stressed out, but she would still shine in the eyes of the customer,” Nelson says. “She’s just funny and personable.”
Travis recalls handling the preparation for an 800-person conference called the College Business Management Institute at the University of Kentucky. She was on her way to the event when a cybersecurity software system that handles airline traffic suddenly developed widespread problems. It led to the cancellation of more than 10,000 flights across the country, including the one Travis was on.
She wasn’t discouraged. Other people might have just given up and blamed the flight cancellations as the reason not to get the job done. Travis took a different approach.
“I drove across three or four states,” she recalls. “I was like: ‘There’s just no way I’m not getting there; I’ll do whatever it takes.’”
Not only did Travis plan and run the event, but she had sole control and connection over project collaboration with the client. She didn’t miss a beat, Nelson recalls. “I seriously just take it that she cared so much about that client and those people,” Nelson said. “She knew she had to get there.”
Travis says she’s always had the goal to manage events in a higher education setting. And it turns out to be a perfect union.
Stabile, the CHC dean, wants the college to put on events that make people feel like they belong. It’s one of the many qualities that she likes about Travis. She says that her new hire is deliberate about the “places where community gets built” at the CHC.
“She is a community-oriented person who just exudes positivity,” Stabile says. “She’s the best kind of team player: kind, generous, and funny.”
In addition to event planning, Travis also works closely with Trond Jacobson, an information sciences instructor at the Honors College who is also the UO Forensics director.
Part of her job includes helping plan the financial side of trips for students who participate in debate and mock trial events. She oversees getting money to students for food, handles flight arrangements and makes sure housing is taken care of when they travel.
“I think this is an awesome opportunity for these students to go see new places,” Travis says.
She says her approach to treating every event like it is an important part of the college’s identity is something that will continue. And she’ll always check her work to make sure students feel they are at the heart of things.
“Life is so over the top... I think that creates a lot of ‘missing-the-point’ scenes,” Travis says. “Curating unique experiences for myself and others to live in the moment...that’s what the human experience is about.”