Ethan Knox

Paola Mignone, PhD ’23, dedicates career to creating an unforgettable residential experience

By Ethan Knox ’20 on FEBRUARY 28, 2025 @BingUNews

Paola Mignone PhD ’23 first heard about Binghamton University 15 years ago. She even gave it a nickname: ‘the brain school.’

Her career has since changed gears several times, but one thing has stayed constant — her respect and care for the students she serves. 

“One thing I love about working at Binghamton is that our students are smart. They are part of the fabric of the institution, and we treat them like they are adults. I’ve seen time and again how the University brings them to the table in important ways, listening to and incorporating their feedback.”

Mignone is the assistant vice president for residential experiences and auxiliary services. She has filled the position for nearly four years — including throughout COVID-19 — but she has also held several other roles on campus, including assistant director of Residential Life, the associate director of business affairs, the assistant dean for financial operations and the director of Residential Life.

In all these roles, Mignone has worked to solicit and act upon student feedback, from restructuring the Residential Life student staffing model to be more manageable and employ more students to meeting regularly with the Student Culinary Council to discuss food options on campus.

“Every three years or so, my role has changed, which has made it fun to learn,” she added. “Binghamton has been an exciting place to work. I’ve had so many opportunities to learn.”

Over time, she’s come to think of the university as much more than just ‘the brain school.’ These days, its home, and Binghamton, she says, excels because of the people she shares it with. 

“The students are great. The staff and faculty work immensely hard to support students and each other, which is why we have people that have been here for 40+ years. That says something about the campus culture. I’m proud to be a Binghamton staff member and a Binghamton alumna.”

Pathways forward

Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, Mignone moved to the U.S. at 17 on an academic scholarship. Today, she holds a bachelor’s degree from Manhattanville College in finance and psychology with a minor in political science and a Master of Business Administration from Long Island University (LIU) Post.

She pursued this path all the way to her doctorate, by which time she had come to Binghamton University to further her professional career. While working full-time, Mignone completed three years of a School of Management program. 

But for Mignone, it didn’t feel right. She decided to make a radical change. 

“I realized through my work with Binghamton students that I wanted to continue my career at the University, and for me, that didn’t look like teaching or pursuing research in finance,” she said. “I talked to the College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA) and transitioned to a degree program there that felt more in line with the direction I hoped to go professionally.”

Mignone ultimately graduated with her philosophy doctorate while researching sense of belonging and networks of social support, a topic that directly correlated with her past work in student experiences. 

“CCPA opened opportunities for me to explore whatever I was curious about,” she said. “These very practical concepts I learned, I could apply them in my real-world job overseeing Residential Life and other areas, but I could also, meanwhile, pursue the research path.”

Now, she takes that experience as a student into her roles on campus and understands the experience all the better.

“When a student says it’s overwhelming to navigate all the systems, for staff and faculty, it may seem like second nature,” Mignone said. “But if you’re the person a student feels comfortable with, then you have a responsibility to make transfer and collaboration as frictionless as possible. If I, as a person who was working here professionally, could still find it hard to navigate such a large hierarchical institution, then I can relate to their views.”

Managing student services

Each day, Mignone manages the technical aspects of student housing, as well as the programmatic — from the educational component to general recreation and crisis planning. She also oversees auxiliary services — dining amenities to bookstore operations and even other revenue contracts, from vending machines to the campus preschool or the Lane­–Starke Tennis Center.

She has a lot to look forward to in her role, as well. With a recently larger team of nine, she will oversee several upcoming projects on campus. The Chenango Room project and the addition of a floor to one of the science buildings as an event space, as well as new dining and bookstore contracts, also fall under her purview. 

Yet one of the accomplishments she is most proud of focuses, once again, on student success, by embedding a social work internship within Residential Life’s offerings. This program, since its implementation, has hired two full time social workers and 14 interns to serve the needs of students, in addition to various levels of crisis intervention.

“The reality of working with students is that they are sometimes dealing with really difficult issues outside of the classroom.” Mignone said. “We’re trying to help students before they are in a mental health crisis and get them resources. In Residential Life, we’ve long understood that because we have the most face time with students, we have a role and a responsibility to do something with that information that we learn.”