Middlebury Hires Janae Due as Assistant Director of Anderson Freeman Center

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Middlebury College has named Janae Due assistant director of the Anderson Freeman Resource Center, an intercultural center focused on serving the needs of students from traditionally underrepresented groups. In her newly created position, Due will work to extend programming and support to queer and transgender students. Prior to joining the staff at Middlebury, she was the equity and social justice coordinator at the Margaret Sloss Center for Women and Gender Equity at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

“We are thrilled that Janae is joining the staff of the Anderson Freeman Center,” said Roberto Lint Sagarena, director of the center. “Her expertise in LGBTQIA student support has been much needed on our campus for a very long time. Her arrival allows the center to better live up to its mission; namely, supporting marginalized and underrepresented student constituencies.”

“I want to encourage students to celebrate and honor their identities,” said Due. “Many students in the queer and trans community have faced hardship and marginalization. These experiences are important, but we need to realize that there is beauty and hope and joy in being queer and trans too.

“My goal is to first inspire students to embrace who they are, recognize and acknowledge their traumas and hardships, and feel empowered by their lived experiences,” she added.

Students should see their identity as a strength and a positive, not as a deficit,” said Due. “We need to stop seeing marginalized students through a deficit model.”

Due is glad to be working at a small school since she enjoyed her undergraduate experience at a university of only 6,500 students, where she was a first-generation student. She has met a number of Middlebury students already and said she is excited to meet more.

Due earned a BA in creative writing and women’s and gender studies from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay and a Master of Education in student affairs from Iowa State University.