Student Affairs Research and Assessment

Manning finds the right fit at, and within, UNC Charlotte

By Wyatt Crosher, Assistant Director of Communications for Student Affairs

For the last decade, Mark Manning has made UNC Charlotte his home. 

First it was as a student, transferring to the University in 2015 and earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications studies. After that, Manning applied to a few places, but the Charlotte native again found himself back in a role within Academic Affairs as an administrative support associate. He then shifted over to Student Affairs, taking on an assistant director role within Student Involvement.

Manning’s current role is senior research associate for the Student Affairs Research and Assessment team, where he’s been a key developer of the Student Affairs Data Lake since May 2025. It’s those efforts that earned Manning this year’s Excellence in Contribution award at this year’s End-of-Year Divisional Awards, and it’s where Manning has seen all his effort at Charlotte come together in one place.

“It has felt like the total package of what I had considered to be a dream job not long ago,” Manning said. “I felt like I’ve been building toward a position like this. It was something that fit with what I was good at and I had the requisite knowledge for it.”

Manning’s day-to-day responsibilities change based on the specificities of the data lake requests he’s working on. Regardless, his position is focused on maintaining and improving the data lake’s capabilities, and involves requests both within and outside of the division. 

That’s where the “requisite knowledge” of 10 years at the University as a student and staff member in multiple positions became a strength.

“At this point, just having been here for a minute, I'm familiar with a lot of the things that go on and the touch points students have or just things that could be relevant for that job,” Manning said. “It was a right time, right place situation.”

Manning’s previous stop within Student Affairs was also a more direct comparison. While in Student Involvement, Manning was focused on the development of NinerEngage and improving the mobile platform, NinerEngage+. In this process, Manning was also gathering data from the website that was utilized similarly to what he’s doing now with SARA and the data lake.

The Excellence in Contribution award was Manning’s second in as many years, with the 2025 honor representing his efforts on NinerEngage. While the two nominations came from different departments, they both highlighted Manning’s consistent dedication to the projects and the amount of effort he put into not only the platforms themselves, but also into collaborating with those around him.

From Manning’s perspective, it’s those same collaborators that make him grateful for the work he does, and it made earning the honors all the more rewarding.

“It's validating for sure, and it's also humbling because we work with great people who are extremely competent with their job, provide a lot of value and are also just good people,” Manning said. “It means a lot because there are so many other people that do deserve it and could have easily won it. It shows that people do validate your work and that it is important.”

Manning’s advice to those interested in a similar field of work is to take advantage of the opportunities that are given. It’s something that he said feels obvious, but can make a huge difference.

“Try to take advantage of professional development as much as you can, and ask for it because the worst they can say is no,” Manning said. “It sounds by the book, but I feel like I wouldn't be in this position if I hadn't asked for resources or just said ‘Hey, I kind of want to work on this project.’”

During his time at Charlotte, Manning has seen the culture of the University shift, whether it be through branding changes, upgrades to the campus or the simple fact of seeing an increase of students wearing Charlotte green compared to when he was here as a student. 

He believes this positive momentum will continue to grow, and it’s a big reason why Manning has stayed at his hometown University long after graduating.

“I felt the need to come back partly because it is comfortable, but also because I feel like we're on the cusp of really becoming something great,” he said. “It's cool to be a part of something larger in some small way.”