Mason Spirit Profiles

  • September 15, 2023
    Olga O’Brien started her journey at George Mason University as an international student from Prague on a volleyball scholarship. As a student, she started working as a part-time volleyball instructor at the Freedom Center in 1999—the year the center first opened. And she has been there ever since.
  • July 20, 2023
    John Tyree, one of Mason’s University Business Consulting (UBC) consultants, started working at Mason in 2019, but his connection to the Mason Nation dates back to 2010.
  • June 21, 2023
    Hank Jones' writing credits that include shows such as Motown Magic, Family Reunion, The Neighborhood, Grown-ish, Bel-Air, Truth Be Told, The Game, Black-ish, The New Edition Story, and Dear White People. He is currently a writer and producer on ABC’s Will Trent.
  • June 8, 2023
    Ashanti Mumin joined George Mason University Police and Public Safety in February 2022. He worked for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office for four years and has a background in responding to mental health crises.
  • June 7, 2023
    Liza Burrell-Aldana, MEd Education Leadership ’13, joins a legacy of Mason alumni honored for their exceptional leadership in school administration.
  • April 24, 2023
    Mason PhD student Dinesh Karri has been working with the student teams competing in the annual Defend the Republic LTA robotics competition, held this year at EagleBank Arena.
  • March 30, 2023
    Cathy Pinskey, capital program director at George Mason University, has watched Mason’s square footage grow a lot over the years—by the millions. As capital program director with Mason Facilities, Pinskey has overseen the university’s largest and most complicated capital projects to date, including the Core Campus Project from 2016 to 2022, which revitalized the heart of the Fairfax Campus. Today, her main focus is Fuse at Mason Square, a new building currently under construction.
  • March 9, 2023
    Dee Arrington is the site coordinator at George Mason University's Potomac Science Center.
  • March 1, 2023
    The City of Fairfax's new mayor, Catherine Read, is the first woman—and the first Mason alum—to be Fairfax's mayor.
  • February 9, 2023
    Shayna Marlowe is assistant director for sexual and interpersonal violence and student support services at Student Support and Advocacy Center at Mason Square.
  • January 11, 2023
    In the Feather Identification Lab at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Mason alum Carla Dove identifies the specific birds involved in collisions, with samples coming to her from various branches of the U.S. military, commercial airlines, and more
  • January 3, 2023
    Mason alum Horace Blackman was elected as rector of Mason’s Board of Visitors in July, after serving as vice rector for the past two years.