Heidi Acton is the new Director of Residence Life at Wayne State College. 

Acton has been in the Midwest her whole life. 

“I’m originally from Iowa,” Acton said. “I went and got my bachelor’s degree at Drake University and my master’s degree from Illinois State University.”  

Acton decided to work for residence life because of the great residence life at here college.  

“I was a first-generation college student and the residence life I lived on campus and the residence life director who was in my building she was just really influential on my life,” Acton said. “Helping me get involved, she became a really good friend.” 

Action said her experience in college with residence life was great.  

“I really enjoyed that and wanted to give back from what I was given,” Acton said.  

She has moved around the Midwest and ended up here in Wayne. 

“So, I’ve kind of bumped around the Midwest a bit,” Acton said. “Then I most recently was at Central Community College in Columbus. I was there for about seven years and then I started here in August.”  

Before working at Central Community College Acton previously work at WSC.  

“Well, I worked at Wayne State College for about three years between 2011 and 2014,” Acton said. “What brought me here was I was coming from Illinois, and this was closer to home for me by about four hours.”  

Acton is enjoying her job at WSC.  

“I think it’s been like it’s kind of felt like coming home to me,” Acton said. “I was here before and I enjoy the students a lot. They have been fun to get to know and for them to get to know me.” 

While there are man positives to her new job there are some challenges. Acton had a difficult time finding a place to live when she first got here.  

“It hasn’t really been too challenging,” Acton said. “I did a similar position at Central Community College, but this is on a much grander scale, from 150 to 1,400 on campus.” 

One of Acton’s favorite things about her job is working with people.  

“With this department there is a lot of new people within it also some older people who have been her for a while,” Acton said. “Melting that together and creating something special I think is really fun.”