In her office on the second floor of the Downing Student Union, WKU Vice President of Student Experience and Dean of Students Martha Sales lives and breathes student life and student success at WKU.

The four-time WKU graduate has spent most of her life on the Hill, and she has no regrets.

Born and raised in Franklin, Kentucky, Sales says her parents empowered her to be herself and challenge herself, supporting her each step of the way. Her mother only

completed a tenth-grade education while her father only reached eighth.

Sales called her parents “the wisest people I have ever known.”

In her junior year of high school, Sales was told by a school counselor that college was not for her.

“I went to see my guidance counselor and shared with her that I wanted to go to college and she told me I didn’t need to go to college,” Sales said. “I just needed to get a job in the factory like my parents.”

Sales refused to accept that advice. After the conversation with her counselor, Sales told her parents she wanted to go to college. Upon this, her mother “found the smartest people she knew in our church” and asked them to help them help Sales get to college.

That couple, Livingston and Kay Alexander, served as role models for Sales throughout her life. Livingston became WKU’s associate vice president of academic affairs in 1990. Kay oversaw student support services, including TRIO, a federally-funded educational talent search program that supports low-income and disadvantaged students as they work toward earning a college degree.

Sales arrived at WKU unsure of what to study but with a strong desire to serve others.

“I always knew I wanted to help people,” Sales said.

It was this desire to serve that led her to declare a social work major.

In many ways, Sales called her path and her life “full circle.” Her major was one of these instances.

“Much of what I do as dean of students is a lot of social work: referring, knowing different people, different entities here on campus and community to refer and connect those dynamics for our students, faculty and staff,” Sales said.

During her time as an undergraduate, Sales took her academics seriously, but she also took building relationships and experiences seriously, too. As a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the Amazing Tones of Joy, Sales developed her passion for others and for loving others, confirming what had been instilled in her through her Christian upbringing.

It was her time as an undergraduate student that Sales feels shaped her into the person she is today.

“I became a person at WKU that I fell in love with,” Sales said.

This was because, through her experience at WKU, Sales said she was able to hear her own voice for the first time.

“It (her time on the Hill) helped me to continue to fall in love with myself, to hear my voice, not just find my voice but, again, to actually hear it,” Sales continued.

Upon receiving her undergraduate degree, Sales worked various jobs that helped women and children in need, connecting them to resources that would help them advance their education and improve their lives.

After her time with these various organizations, Sales returned to WKU as a counselor with TRIO. In time, she was promoted to academic coordinator, assistant director and then director for the university’s TRIO programs.

Reflecting on her time with TRIO, Sales says this is another full circle moment. Not only did Kay Alexander serve with the program, but Sales did, as well. Now, Sales oversees TRIO.

“Now TRIO reports to me,” Sales said. “I mean, it’s so full circle.”

As Sales was promoted and continued to take on new roles within the university, she came to lead the WKU Intercultural Student Engagement Center.

It was in this role that current WKU Regent Cynthia Nichols first met Sales. Nichols and her husband, George, made a donation to ISEC, which brought the Nichols and Sales together for the first time.

“When I met her and we looked at each other, I hugged her and I felt like I had known her my whole life,” Cynthia Nichols said.

Since meeting Sales through her donation to ISEC, Nichols has carried Sales’ positivity and intentionality with her.

“She gives off such a positive energy to everyone that she comes in contact with,” Nichols said.

“She’s just so dynamic,” Nichols continued.

Sales’ constant positivity made her a force on campus, one whose talent was recognized and rewarded by university administration.

WKU President Timothy Caboni first met Sales in the spring of 2017 during his presidential transition. It was in her capacity as director of TRIO that Caboni first came to know Sales, and it was because of this work that he promoted her to higher-level administrative roles.

“It was pretty clear from my perspective that she was obviously good at her job. If you look at the university’s historical success at grant getting for TRIO and the success of recruiting students from a variety of backgrounds to campus, she was very talented, obviously very engaging,” Caboni said.

According to Caboni, her talent and the fact she was “beloved by different parts of the university,” as well as the outcomes she produced and her spirit and energy led him to ask Sales to serve as interim dean of students before offering her the full position.

It was when Sales took the role of interim dean of students that Emmeline Essler first met Sales, despite the two both having worked at WKU for years.

Prior to working directly with Sales, Essler “just knew that she was a fun, bubbly person to be around, and worked really hard for her students.”

Essler began her career at WKU working as an office associate with the division of enrollment management before transitioning to the office of the dean of students in the year before Sales took on the role. Now, Essler serves as student success coordinator and student ombuds officer. Essler credits her career development to Sales and her encouragement to push herself and continue her education.

“My first evaluation with her, her first question was ‘when do you plan to go back to school?’ And it wasn’t so much of an option,” Essler said. “Her constant reassurance throughout the process that I was capable, that I did have the knowledge and that I could get this degree was really helpful.”

Essler graduated with a master’s in student affairs this past summer and is currently enrolled in WKU’s educational leadership doctoral program. Her workspace is located in the dean of students suite in DSU, where she works directly with Sales each day.

“I absolutely love working for Dr. Sales,” Essler said. “It is always fun and exciting and she makes every day kind of purposeful and worth being here.”

Cres’Sena Thomas had a similar experience with Sales as Essler.

Through her husband, Thomas first met Sales in 2010. It was not until 2012, however, that Thomas was hired as an educational talent search coordinator at TRIO. Since then, Thomas has worked with Sales in a variety of different roles. Currently, she serves as ISEC director.

Similar to Essler, Sales encouraged Thomas to pursue a doctorate at WKU and supported her throughout the process.

“She allowed me the space to vent and get through the tough moments while also being there to help in any way that she could,” Thomas said.

In working with Sales, Thomas has found a leader and a leadership style she admires.

“The way that she leads, it’s almost like you work alongside of her,” Thomas said. “She’s also a follower as well as she’s a leader…She empowers you, she gives you honest feedback.”

“She wants to see you win, even if seeing you win isn’t here,” Thomas continued. “She’s also willing, if you allow her, to help you get to wherever you’re trying to go and help you reach your goals. She’s very selfless in how she leads.”

In the same way that Essler and Thomas credit Sales for their success, Sales credits the people she works with for helping her be effective in her role.

“I think my effectiveness comes with the people who support me, encourage me and that I’m surrounded with,” Sales continued. “I’m only effective because of the people who help me be effective.”

Through her role as dean of students, Sales oversees the Counseling Center, the ID Center, the Intercultural Student Engagement Center, the Office of Student Conduct and TRIO.

In February, Sales assumed the interim role of vice president of student experience following the departure of Vice President of Enrollment and Student Experience Ethan Logan. In August, Caboni announced Sales had accepted an offer to take on her interim role in a permanent capacity.

“I am very excited about the opportunity [to take on this new position],” Sales

told the Herald at the time. “Anytime that I am able to assist the students more, advocate our campus constituents and community and individuals about how wonderful our students are, that makes me excited.”

Reporting to Sales in this role under the umbrella of student engagement is WKU Campus Recreation and Wellness, Dining Service, Housing and Residence Life, and Student Activities, Organizations and Leadership Programs. Sales also leads institutional opportunities, esports and the Office of Sustainability.

While overseeing these many different university units, Sales operates each day believing that her job is to connect each member of the WKU community to each other.

“I think what I do every day is connect: connect students to the right people, whether it’s in the community, faculty or staff,” Sales said.

Sales’ work to make these connections for students can begin before their time on the Hill as a student. Dylan Oglesbee, a senior majoring in management with a concentration in business administration from Columbus, Ohio, learned this firsthand.

On a last-minute visit to WKU as a high school senior in fall 2020, Oglesbee and his mother were on the Hill for the first time. The two did not have a scheduled tour and were exploring campus on their own when they found themselves in the Downing Student Union looking at an electronic map of campus.

It was at this moment Sales approached the two.

“She doesn’t introduce herself with any kind of title,” Oglesbee said. “She just says, ‘Hey, I’m Martha, I work here at WKU. Is there anything I can help you folks find?”

“We just said ‘Oh, we’re just trying to figure out which way we’re going,’ and she gave us a quick crash course on where everything is and talked to us about some of the school resources,” Oglesbee continued.

The kindness shown to him and his mother by Sales is something that stuck with him, Oglesbee said. It eventually became an important factor in his decision to attend WKU.

“We didn’t have someone high up in the university administration on any other university’s campus come up to us and truly give five, ten minutes of their time to help us figure things out and just be patient and be a friendly face to provide some good information,” Oglesbee said. “It was definitely a major factor.”

Sales enjoys the location of her office campus because it allows her to connect with and interact with students in ways similar to her interaction with Oglesbee.

This location allows her to have meaningful interactions with students, faculty and staff, which she believes are fundamental to her job and to life.

“You never know how life-changing you can be to a person,” Sales said. “You know, whether it’s a hug or a conversation or hello or what’s going on today, it’s those 30-minute conversations that lead to a lifetime of change.”

When she accepted the role of vice president of student experience, Sales was asked if she wanted to move her office into Potter Hall. Her response?

“Good lord no,” Sales said. “Students will never find me in Potter. I want to walk out of this office and see students and say ‘Good morning’ and ‘How are you doing?’”

What drives Sales’ desire to love others is her deep Christian faith, which she carries with her each day.

“I’m employed by WKU, but I work for God,” Sales said.

It is because of her faith that Sales emphasizes love in everything she does, from her work at WKU to serving others at her church to providing for her family – her husband, Pastor Shawn Sales, and her two children, Seth and Kiah.

“Love is universal. You just love,” Sales said. “It doesn’t matter your church, your faith, your creed, your color, love is universal. My job every day is to just love. I may not always like what you do, like what you stand for, like how you act, but I have been called to love.”

Just as in her interactions with students, Sales emphasizes love and kindness in her interaction with all members of WKU’s faculty and staff.

As part of the President’s Cabinet, Sales has an opportunity to work closely with Caboni in a way few others are able. To Caboni, Sales’ accessibility, positivity and voice are each important on the cabinet.

“One of her great characteristics is her ability to infuse levity in what are sometimes heavy conversations,” Caboni said. “One of the contributions she makes is by being willing to call things out or pick on folks that might be a little bit funny, and that’s crucial.”

To Caboni, Sales’ ability to keep a variety of perspectives in mind is vital. Not only does she help the cabinet “keep an eye on the student prize,” but she also makes sure the cabinet does not lose sight of the voices of the students, faculty and staff of color who are represented through her.

Nichols reflected this sentiment, expressing her pride that Sales is that voice for people of color and for all students on the cabinet.

“She’s making a way for other African Americans, women of color, anybody,” Nichols continued. “To see how she works would make anyone proud, to want to be similar to what she is. But as a woman of color, I’m extremely proud to see her and to go as high as she can go.”

Sales focuses just as much on lifting all student voices.

“When I’m sitting at the President’s Cabinet, I’m not just looking for how I can help people who look like me or share my same gender,” Sales said. “I’m thinking how I can help everyone.”

Sales spoke of the saying “a rising tide lifts all boats” while explaining how she sees herself and her role.

“If I just rise for myself, or I just rise for women, or I just rise for women of color, then other ships get left behind,” Sales said. “Now do I think about it, and some- times do I sit there and like, ‘because I’m here and because I’m the only woman of color, I’m here for a reason.’”

Sales credits her faith in God as helping her succeed in the ways that she has on the Hill.

“It’s just amazing how God orders your steps, and sometimes he doesn’t ask you what you want to do, he just tells you,” Sales said. “I never would’ve guessed that I would be dean of students at Western Kentucky University. I never would’ve guessed I would be vice president.”

Most of Sales’ adult life has been spent at WKU. She said she has stayed because she loves the place and space WKU is.

“I’ve always been taught through my Christian upbringing to love everybody else, but when you are in a place in space and you feel comfortable loving yourself, the good, the bad, and the ugly, you don’t want to leave that space,” Sales said.

It is her ability to make that space that sticks with so many in the WKU community.

“I think, really, she shows that no matter what kind of day you’re having, where you’re at, what you’re doing, there is always a way to make someone’s day better,” Oglesbee said. “And beyond that, to do it with just a genuine compassion and not just out of some feeling of responsibility.”

“She understands that the work she does really contributes to the greater whole of the university,” Oglesbee said. “It’s not just about what she’s doing, it’s about that ripple effect, and I think she understands just how much influence her position can have.”

Reflecting on homecoming, her time on the Hill and what WKU means to her, Sales expressed nothing but gratitude for where she has been and excitement for. where she will go.

“WKU means family to me. WKU means life-changing. WKU means empowerment. WKU means the next next.”

Sales understands the weight of her role and the impact of her words and actions. She carries this with her each day, working to create a brighter WKU and a brighter world for every student, faculty and staff member she encounters. Not only does she love WKU, but she loves the world.

“I think everybody has a piece of WKU in their heart, no matter where they go,” Sales said.

Editor-in-Chief Price Wilborn can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @pricewilborn.