Cindy Fruhwirth, assistant director of advising at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, was elected to a national office within the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA), a professional organization for faculty and professional academic advisers.

Fruhwirth was named the Peer Advising and Mentoring Commission chair for 2009-2010. She was a member of the Peer Advising and Mentoring Interest Group for several years before it was awarded commission status and has presented on peer advising topics on the national, regional and state level on five occasions.

“There is a burgeoning interest in peer advising and mentoring, especially as campuses face budget cuts and need to find ways to help students more efficiently,” Fruhwirth said in her platform statement. “Although peer support is much more common on campuses today than it was even five years ago, there are still many campuses beginning to develop programs or exploring new ways to use peer advising/mentoring to reach their goals to better service students.”

Fruhwirth was awarded NACADA’s Outstanding Advising Certificate of Merit in 2008.

NACADA’s Peer Advising Interest Group was established to bring together advising administrators, advisers and peer advisers in a forum to discuss peer advising in higher education.

For more information about Fruhwirth’s platform, visit www.nacada.ksu.edu/Election/2009/Platforms/09Platform-Fruhwirth.htm.