Holland Resigning as Director of WRC
February 23, 2022 - Dorene DiNaro
Jessica Holland is stepping down as the director for The University of New Mexico Women’s Resource Center at the end of this month—a place she called home for the last five years.
Holland says she was proud to be a part of a program which began 50 years ago when students, faculty, and staff organized to create a feminist activist space which has remained a safe haven and source of inspiration for so many ever since. “My favorite part of the job was getting to call the WRC my home and support student leadership,” she says.
Holland’s journey to UNM came via her work with the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program (SANE) where she served as the program’s representative on the Sexual Misconduct and Assault Response Team at UNM. After meeting with Caitlin Henke, the WRC Interim Director at the time, Holland decided to apply for the director’s position. “When I first met Jessica I noticed how vivacious and inspired she was, I thought to myself, she is just what the WRC needs,” Henke says. “Jessica has brought so much creativity, compassion and growth to the WRC she deserves a lot of credit.”
Throughout her tenure, Holland says the most exciting change to the WRC was the growth of its counseling intern program. “Our students saw the increasing need for mental health support on campus and together we secured funding,” she says. “Our program now provides over 500 hours of free counseling a semester and is continuing to grow.”
Holland leaves The University of New Mexico and heads into the private sector to work in health care and social services. She hopes that her time at UNM is remembered for the way the WRC rose up when women’s voices were continuing to be suppressed. “Our students and community did the opposite-- they trusted our ability to advocate for change and believed in our students’ vision to create powerful responses to our community’s needs,” she says.
