Malika Hook Muhammad has dedicated her professional career in higher education to helping ensure that education is available to everyone who wants to pursue it.

“Not everyone has the privilege of having education be their sole responsibility in life. Oftentimes people are navigating family commitments, health circumstances, work commitments and more. Just because you have other things going on, it doesn't mean you shouldn't also have access to higher education,” said Hook Muhammad, the new Director of Academic Affairs and Student Success for Temple University University College. “When I talk about equity, I mean how do we structure systems to recognize who students are coming in the door, not necessarily who we expect them to be. Everyone isn't a 17-year-old just stepping out of their parents' home for the first time — that's really what drives me in this work.”

Hook Muhammad brings more than 15 years of experience in higher education “to this essential role,” said Dr, Vicki Lewis McGarvey, Vice Provost for University College and Director of Temple University Ambler. 

“Her background is exceptionally suited for the broad diversity of students who take programs within University College, particularly the Bachelor of General Studies,” she said.

According to Dr. McGarvey, as Director of Academic Affairs and Student Success Hook Muhammad will “provide leadership and operational oversight for academic programming and student success initiatives across the University College and its campuses, with a primary focus on the BGS program.” 

“The director is responsible for enhancing the quality and effectiveness of academic advising, promoting student persistence and completion, leading assessment efforts and supporting a broad range of academic matters. We’re excited to work with (Hook Muhammad) to ensure high-quality programming and success to a very broad range of students,” she said. “University College serves learners of all ages and backgrounds by offering credit and non-credit courses, training and continuing education programs. We want to build capacity and support the unique strengths of each campus — Ambler, Center City and Harrisburg — in response to regional needs.”

Prior to arriving at Temple, Hook Muhammad was at not one but two higher education institutions. She was Senior Academic Advisor for the Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University. She is also a member of the Master of Social Work faculty in the Graduate School of Social Work at West Chester University where, according to Hook Muhammad, she will continue to teach while completing her Doctor of Education in Higher Education Administration. 

“I love education; I love cultivating the next wave of social workers. That's something I'm really passionate about,” she said. “In addition to that, I'm also in (West Chester’s) EdD program. So, it's kind of like one love serves the next — helping me to complete my degree while I'm helping my students to complete their degrees.”
At George Washington University, Hook Muhammad said she began her academic advising roll “in practicum advising, helping masters of public health students build their real-world public health experiences, meet the competencies of education for their degree and then meet the requirements for them to graduate.” 

“That dovetailed nicely into academic advising, which then expanded into undergraduate advising. Before I left, I was doing all three at the same time — I was able to take the lead on building many of the systems we used to support our students; there was a lot of learning by doing,” she said. “I think I have a deep understanding of not just the macro vision of a department but also an understanding of what it means to do the day-to-day work.”

According to Hook Muhammad, it’s important to ask, “How do we meet students where they are?” 

“How do we show up as professionals while still upholding the guidelines that are set by the university. How can we make those guidelines flexible when we need to make them flexible,” she said. “That's really important when you're doing holistic student-centered work. There are no cookie-cutter students anymore. So, how do we make this work for the folks that are in front of us?”

Her doctoral dissertation, Hook Muhammad said, focuses on some of those essential questions.

“I'm definitely interested in identity-centered advising and student services practices and how it contributes to a student's sense of belonging at an institution. I'm also very interested in the experiences of Muslim students, particularly when they are in institutions where they are maybe one of only a few,” she said. “There has not been a lot written yet about Muslim women's experiences in higher education centered around sense of belonging at institutions — what are the things that help students to feel like they belong and can be successful?”

Joining the team at Temple, Hook Muhammad said, “feels very much like a homecoming for me.” 

“I'm a Philadelphia native. When I went away to college, I explored the world a bit,” she said. “Now when I'm returning home, I wanted to settle and plant my roots here in the city that raised me and there's nothing more Philadelphia than Temple University. When I saw the position and I saw the skills requested as well as the scope of the work with University College, it really just felt like it was calling me, so I was excited to apply.”

The adult and non-traditional learner focus of University College is “where my professional identity lives most fully,” Hook Muhammad said.

“I was introduced to online education through my work with 2U, Inc., an educational consulting company that helps colleges and universities take their degree programs online,” she said. “That was the very first time that I experienced online education in a really intentional way.”

2U was helping the University of Southern California develop an online masters of social work program, Hook Muhammad said. 

“I really thought at the time you couldn’t do that — you couldn't teach social work online, it’s impossible. But they showed me that it could be done and why it should be done,” she said. “A majority of the students in that program were adult learners; they were military spouses; they were people who were on the go in a million different directions who wanted the degree but couldn't sit still at a university for two years. That's where that spark came from and I've been involved in this work ever since.”

The University College BGS program, Hook Muhammad said, is a “beautiful way of helping someone who worked really hard and maybe wasn't able to finish for whatever reason.”

“It’s honoring that work and helping them towards the completion of something meaningful. Folks set out to get a bachelor's degree and then life happens, whether it is health or children or jobs or money, life happens,” she said. “That doesn't mean that you should have to walk away and never look back. As someone who has been through it several times and is still going through it, going to college is hard work. It saddens me to hear, ‘I'm, 20 credits shy of graduation.’ Okay, how can we make that happen for you?” 

On her first day at Temple, Hook Muhammad said, “I want to get to know what the folks that have been doing this work know.”

“I want to understand what their needs are. My perspective on leadership is that if the leader isn't an active part of the team, then they're not an effective leader, she said. “For our students, I want them to have sense of self-accomplishment when they achieve their goals. It is hard work going through this, and I want folks to feel like they earned every bit of it and to know that the drive and the power that created that came from within them.”