Alex Dutro-Maeda: Taking Pride in
Student Affairs
By Nic Tamayo
She loves art. She enjoys long-form comic writing, reading and video gaming. She’s engaged to be married, she loves her Great Pyrenees and she loves her work in student affairs. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Alex Dutro-Maeda, 28, hasn’t been able to make her mark among students as the new assistant director for the CU Pride Office. As she continues to work remotely, a critical piece of her work, the students, is missing.
“It’s a little surreal,” she said. “Almost because it feels like I’m not totally 100% in the role yet, even though I know that I am.”
Throughout her upbringing, Dutro-Maeda moved around often. Her parents were trying to find their place within the world of higher education, so they explored their options across the country. By the time she was in eighth grade, they had moved to Colorado.
“I had a solid group of friends,” said Dutro-Maeda about her experience attending high school in Boulder. “many of whom also ended up being queer after high school– which is always how it goes.”
After high school, Dutro-Maeda decided to stay in Boulder and study advertising at CU. She had a tough time during her undergraduate years due to mental health struggles that affected her experience. Despite this, however, Dutro-Maeda still managed to become involved with Boulder’s queer community. She was involved with groups like the CU Gay-Straight Alliance and the CU Queer People of Color community. During this time, she also started working for the CU Women’s Resource Center.
“For my last couple years of college, I ran the queer women and community facilitator group where we just, you know, hang out, and talk and eat pizza, which is pretty chill,” she said.
Dutro-Maeda graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in advertising and she was offered a marketing job in Boulder. She worked in marketing for a year before she realized that it wasn’t for her. She decided that, like with her work in the CU Women’s Resource Center, she wanted to have an impact.
So, she began pursuing a graduate degree in higher education student affairs at the University of Connecticut. She occupied a lot of her time there with an assistantship at the UConn Women’s Center, and she had a hand in the center’s programming. Events ranged from issues around mental health promotion to violence against women and consent.
Dutro-Maeda finished her graduate studies in 2018 at the University of Connecticut and was offered a job at a university in Utah: Weber State University’s Women’s Center, which was a perfect fit for her.
“The philosophy of their work was very forward, it was very margin to center, and they took… the feminist leadership philosophy very seriously,” Dutro-Maeda said. “So I thought that would be a cool place to be.”
Yajanetsy Ruano worked with Dutro-Maeda as a graduate student at the WSU Women’s Center. She described their relationship as more of a “femmetorship” rather than a working relationship. “Charismatic, caring, a true authentic leader,” is how Ruano described Dutro-Maeda as a person.
“I see her doing whatever the hell she wants,” Ruano said. “I can see her running the school; I can see her running board meetings; I can see her in higher-ed administration.”
During her time at Weber State, Dutro-Maeda was able to integrate into a work environment in which she felt comfortable. As a program specialist there, she planned and executed events for the University’s community.
Paige Davies, the director of the WSU Women’s Center, describes Dutro-Maeda as sweet, funny and humble. Davies credits Dutro-Maeda with helping her see situations creatively and helping her to push the boundaries of what was possible.
“She really helped start some feminist community spaces with our students. Before, it felt like it was really hard to bring students together to talk about social justice or activism or feminism or racial justice, and she helped fix that,” Davies said.
Even as she integrated into the Weber State community, Dutro-Maeda still craved something else. So, when an opening in the CU Pride Office popped up, she decided to come home. As COVID-19 cases continue to decline, Dutro-Maeda is aiming for a Pride Office boom in the fall of 2021. She has events in the works for celebrations of pride across campus.
“I want folks to know that the pride office is there for them and that they don’t have to be afraid to talk to us because we’re always going to do our best to help them to create a home on campus,” Dutro-Maeda said.
