For Assistant Director of Access Programs Doris Tinsley, her journey to Puget Sound started with a cross-country road trip. Originally from Long Island, New York, Tinsley graduated from Virginia Tech and immediately packed up her car to move to South Dakota, where she took a job providing enrichment programs and coaching to Native American high school students. In 2021, she hopped in her car again to start her career at Puget Sound, where she joined the Alumni and Parent Relations team. Then, in 2022, Tinsley made the switch to work in the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity overseeing the university’s Access Programs, which provide tutoring, mentorship, and on-campus programs for middle and high school students in Tacoma, including the long-running Summer Academic Challenge program. In her free time, Tinsley runs her own advocacy nonprofit, volunteers with the City of Tacoma’s Human Services Commission, studies for her master’s degree, serves as a member of her tribe’s council, and tends to her many, many house plants.
