3 Questions: Sadé Abraham on the new Office of Academic Community, Empowerment, and Success
In a recent announcement, Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate and Graduate Education David L. Darmofal shared that the Office of Minority Education (OME) has merged with the Undergraduate Advising Center’s (UAC) existing Advising & Student Belonging (ASB) pillar to form the Office of Academic Community, Empowerment, and Success (OACES, pronounced “oasis”). As a new office inside the UAC, OACES will draw and expand upon OME’s pioneering legacy and the more recent work of ASB to foster the success of students who have faced challenges on their paths to and through MIT. The new director of OACES, Associate Dean Sadé Abraham, has led the ASB pillar since 2023 and served as interim deputy director of the OME last year. Here, Abraham explains her path to the UAC, the genesis and immediate priorities of OACES, and her philosophy about student advising.
Q: What drew you to the UAC?
A: While I was working at an institution just down the road, I kept a close eye on MIT. What ultimately drew me here was its ethos of innovation, one that values not only excellence but equity, and pairs groundbreaking work with a sense of humility among students, faculty, and staff. That blend of mind, hand, and heart is rare, and it felt like a compelling invitation.
Initially, my role in UAC revolved around supporting our strategic work for first-generation/low-income (FLI) students, transfer students, and the Associate Advising program, in which upper-level students advise first-year students. Now, my expanded leadership role with OACES allows me an even greater opportunity to engage with a broader range of student populations that are both near to my heart and deeply connected to my own educational journey. This work centers around student communities whose insight, leadership, and drive consistently push institutions forward. These students bring with them a range of lived experiences, cultural knowledge, and intellectual curiosity that enrich the MIT community and challenge us to think more expansively about learning, success, and belonging.
What excites me about the UAC is the holistic and academic-facing nature of the work. Too often, institutions relegate this kind of work to social programming or student-led events. Those are important, but what we are building here is comprehensive. We are weaving together advising, mentoring, academic strategy, professional development, and community building, all within a single, coordinated framework. In so doing, MIT is a model for what advancing integrated, student-centered academic equity can truly look like.
Q: Tell us a bit about how you and the team arrived at OACES and your priorities for the upcoming year.
A: OACES was created through a strategic merger of two units: the Office of Minority Education, which has a remarkable 50-year history at MIT, and the newer Advising and Student Belonging pillar within the Undergraduate Advising Center. MIT created the UAC in 2023 to provide more holistic and comprehensive academic advising for all four years of the undergraduate experience. Since it was established, many community conversations ensued, and it became apparent that bringing OME into the UAC would strengthen both of them.
The result is more than just a new acronym. It is a unified ecosystem designed to serve all of our students holistically. Our team brings both deep institutional history and fresh energy. Some of our staff have longstanding ties to this community, while others bring perspectives and vision from outside MIT. That combination has created the best of both worlds. We are grounded and reflective, while also being bold and forward-looking.
Our students and programs have always overlapped. What we have done now is align that synergy intentionally. We are already seeing a multiplier effect: stronger collaboration, deeper impact, and clearer outcomes. And now, with the UAC as our physical and institutional home, we are positioned to scale and sustain this work at the highest level.
As far as priorities go, this year OACES is focused on three in particular. The first is clarity. We need to communicate clearly the full scope of OACES, so that students, faculty, and other stakeholders can easily connect with what we offer.
The second is optimization. We plan to work on aligning our operations and programming to reflect the excellence of the students we serve. We have decades of data to inform us, thanks to OME’s exceptional work in the last five decades. We are not just refining structures or launching new programs and initiatives. We are reshaping the student experience to help undergraduates flourish for all four years.
Finally, we want to leverage the incredible human capital we have here at MIT by deepening our collaborations with students, staff, and faculty. For example,we have a 200-strong Associate Advisor community, and they are amazing! They help us reach incoming students early and often. Through them, we are able to seed essential messages about mindset, skill-building, and academic success at key points throughout the year. We also envision collaborating with alumni, corporate leaders, and other key stakeholders.
Q: What is your advising and student support philosophy?
A: Advising, when done well, is not just about answering questions or solving problems. It is about life decisions. And those decisions do not just impact the student in front of us. They have the potential to ripple through families, communities, continents, and generations.
I have seen the power of a single conversation to shift a student’s trajectory. What may begin as a quick check-in often opens the door to something much deeper: academic pressure, self-doubt, imposter syndrome, or a major crossroads. My team and I take that responsibility seriously.
Our philosophy is rooted in relationships. This is not a check-in, check-out model. We walk alongside all of our students, especially our FLI and transfer students, those who may have been underserved and really anyone who needs support. And we bring our full selves to this work.
I believe in leading with care, context, and celebration. Within our student portfolio are Rhodes Scholars, researchers, artists, and community changemakers. Despite some of the challenges they may have faced, these students persist and are defining for themselves what is possible. In fact, many of us can learn from their journeys. We are here to honor their unique gifts, support their growth, and amplify their success. And the way we can do that in OACES is to make sure that our systems, programs, and processes enable students to fully meet their potential.
I cannot wait to get started!