Odom manages the undergraduate advising immersion team for the School of Life Sciences where she oversees academic advising and curriculum support for more than 3500 campus-based degree seeking students. With over 25 years of higher education experience and 16 years in advising services, her primary focus is on creating a culture of student success by executing strategies and developing support programs which enhance the student's overall educational experience.
Odom's previous experience includes serving as senior academic counselor in Thurgood Marshall College at the University of California, San Diego, academic success coordinator senior within the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering's School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, and manager of undergraduate advising overseeing the first-year academic success team within Fulton's Polytechnic School. Odom also served as a faculty instructor in the theatre department at Virginia Commonwealth University, and as diversity student mentor in The Theatre School at DePaul University - a role and program which she developed and administered to support first-generation and underrepresented students.
During her professional career, Odom's key achievements include:
- Successful launch of The Polytechnic School's first-year academic success team yielding a 7% increase in first-year student retention in year one of the program.
- Team presentation: Transforming Student Advising - Designing A Team That Makes A Difference at the 39th Annual National Conference on the First-Year Experience.
- Recipient of the Fulton Schools IMPACT Award for Teamwork.
- Successful collaboration and implementation of the Chancellor's Associates Scholars Program; an immersive, cohort-based scholarship program serving first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students at the University of California, San Diego.
Odom was raised in Dallas, Texas and received her bachelor of arts from St. Edward's University in Austin and her master of fine arts from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. Odom and her family have lived in Arizona since 2016 and are proud members of the Sun Devil community.