Let’s just get this out the way: She has a forté for making a viable impact on the future of incoming students.
LaSonia Forté, associate director of State Outreach at the University of Michigan (U of M), takes her gift of engagement and puts service above self as she leads while serving the eastern region of the State of Michigan (including Detroit, Saginaw, Bay City, Midland, and Alpena).
Forté’s role as outreach representative in the Office of Government Relations makes strides to build strategic partnerships in the business, institutional, government, education, and non-profit sectors throughout the east side of Michigan, according to her biography. The Detroit native also serves as the board president of the Washtenaw County’s Dispute Resolution Center and on the board of directors of Girls Group among other organizations.
Forté’s career trajectory got its start roughly 14 years ago after some unexpected bumps along the way, which she didn’t let steer her off course.
“I was set to lose my job at a GM parts logistics company that was closing its doors,” she told the Michigan Chronicle. “The layoffs were imminent when my then fiancé, now husband, helped to get me an interview with the University of Michigan’s dual careers program which helps spouses of faculty find jobs as part of the university’s efforts to retain professors.”
Taking her first job at the U of M, she began working at the university in the Rackham Graduate School’s Dean’s Office as an Administrative Assistant and was promoted to office manager.
About five years later she became assistant to the associate vice president of Facilities and Operations, she said.
“In that role, one of my responsibilities was handling miscellaneous matters at the President’s House, which led to me becoming interested in what was happening generally in the president’s office, Forté added.
She added that once Mark Schlissel became president and announced his plan for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative, she knew that she wanted to assist in that effort in any way possible.
“So, I jumped at the chance to become his office’s administrative manager,” she said. “Some years later, after a short and ill-fated return to Rackham, I found the job I feel like my life and work experiences had
prepared me for: associate director of State Outreach in the Office of the vice president for Government Relations.”
Forté said that success in a typical work week for her looks like building and “making connections and forming relationships with faculty.”
“Bringing together like-minded people to solve community problems using the university’s vast intellectual resources is what my job is all about,” Forté said. “It is extremely gratifying to witness people sharing their perspectives, then committing to working together to solve real-world problems.”
Forté added that being a leader in her field looks like someone who “listens, engages and inspires others to identify their own needs and be responsive to the needs of others.”
“I am able to connect with many people because I am willing to share with them my own trials and tribulations,” Forté said, adding that she grew from her personal experiences. “I had a baby while I was in high school, an experience I am willing to share with high school students.”
She lived in poverty for a time while growing up, and she uses her past to relate to others.
“I did not have a traditional academic path,” Forté said, adding that her life emboldens her. “We all have to work to learn from our mistakes, survive our trials and tribulations, and move forward. We should permit ourselves to fuss and moan and cry, then find the inner and external resources to keep on pushing to become the best selves we can be, for ourselves and for the people who depend on us for comfort and inspiration.”
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