Rachael Eyler and Seth Vessa

Division of Student Affairs
Start Dates: July 24 and July 10 (respectively), 2023 

Starting within two weeks of each other in July, Rachael Eyler and Seth Vessa are offering fresh new energy and perspectives to the Division of Student Affairs in their marketing and communications roles. They both bring a passion and unique expertise and experience to the jobs they call their ‘perfect fits’. And they both have a singular purpose: to help students have their best experience possible here at SBU.

Rachael Eyler
Marketing Coordinator, Student Affairs

Rachael Eyler’s travels – as a ‘military brat’ growing up, an aspiring young-adult journalist and an adventurer by nature – have spanned small towns across the US and countries around the globe, including internships in Korea and Africa.

Today, our new Student Affairs Marketing Coordinator is beyond excited to set down roots on Long Island, at her SBU alma mater. Her mission: “to help students enjoy the same incredible experiences and opportunities I had here.”

A proud graduate of the then-called School of Journalism in winter 2019, Rachael came to Stony Brook in 2017 as a transfer student. “From the moment I stepped on campus, I was overwhelmed by the pride everyone felt about this University. And everyone I came into contact with made it clear I could do anything I wanted to do. No ambition was ‘too big.’ 

“If I wanted to be a producer for the Roth Regatta Live Show, I did that. If I wanted to be an anchor of a newscast, I did that. If I wanted to get an internship with the BBC, I could do that. And I did. It was all because everyone here believed in me. That’s the same environment I want to help today’s students experience.”

An award-winning investigative reporter and news anchor, Rachael calls herself “a Seawolf through and through.” And she’s thrilled to be working in a capacity that touches all aspects of student life.

“The job is everything the title says and everything it doesn’t,” says Rachael. “I help spearhead projects for all the areas that make up Student Affairs [Student Wellness, Residential Life, Career Development and Student Life] to help them tell the stories that can make campus life as fulfilling as possible for students. The areas come to our team for any marketing material assistance they need to make that happen.” That includes, she says, videos, photography and graphic design work, as well as managing departments’ content calendars and helping them strategize on the most effective communication campaigns. Rachael also creates a monthly newsletter for students’ families and a campus newsletter distributed twice a week.

Rachael’s return to Stony Brook – where she now lives with her fiance Jacob, right down Nicolls Road – is an amazing story in itself.

“My career path has taken a lot of twists and turns. I started out planning to pursue the digital media side of journalism, as a reporter, videographer, photographer, everything you think of when you think of news.” She officially began that journey with a Wall Street Journal International Reporting fellowship through SBU’s Marie Colvin Center. But what was supposed to be the launch of her career abruptly fell flat. “I was literally on the forefront of reporting on the pandemic at its height in 2020 from London, from Italy, from China, when the fellowship ended because of the very thing I was covering.”

Rachael came back to the US “just days before the borders closed,” pursuing her journalistic aspirations in TV news “in the smallest part of Wisconsin you can think of” – Rhinelander, Wisconsin, also known as the Northwoods. But that small town is where she met Jacob and became the award-winning journalist she is today. From there she moved to Flint, Michigan, where she made a pivotal decision.

“In Flint, I covered police brutality,” she says. “I covered gun violence, homicides, fires, and a lot of political investigations that ended careers as part of my local news reporting. But witnessing a teenage shooting one day totally changed my mindset on what I wanted to do with my life and career.”

“I realized I couldn’t change people’s situations the way I wanted to by covering local news. I wanted to be the storyteller of a young generation fighting for those changes." 

That’s when a friend reached out to her about the marketing position in Student Affairs. “ I get to use my creativity and my voice to help students the way Stony Brook helped me.”  And that, she says, is a story she can get behind!

Seth Vessa
Marketing and Communications Coordinator, Student Life

While Seth Vessa’s career began in the healthcare and IT fields, he quickly realized higher education was where his heart was. “A friend said to me, ‘Why don’t you look into higher ed? It’s a wonderful place to have a really meaningful job and career,” says Seth. And while his career began upstate, where he attended the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Seth is happy to return to his Long Island hometown to be with friends and family, work at the University he’s always revered, and launch that “really meaningful job” that’s all about the students.

“I just really want to work with students and understand and help them any way I can,” says Seth. “I wanted something that was rewarding. And I totally found it here.”

In his role, Seth puts his experience in public relations, advertising and applied communication (his major at RIT) to work in Student Life, helping promote activities and events through channels like SB Engaged. He “collaborates with all kinds of partners” to develop content for social media platforms, provide overall marketing assistance, and help make sure departments “stay on brand” in their student-centric campaigns. He’s also involved in undergraduate student mentoring, as well as having a graduate student who works for him. This kind of engagement is similar to his involvement in student government and various other areas during his undergraduate years.

Here at SBU, Seth also gets to work on one of his favorite areas – video production and design. “I love everything about creating content through video. I love to  edit and create videos and pictures so that they really draw people in and amaze them. That’s always intrigued me.”

Another strong passion of Seth’s is creating inclusive environments where everyone’s needs matter. He says, “I really want to create a sense of belonging for every individual student … whether they’re a first generation student or even someone like me, with a cochlear implant.”

Seth was able to make a difference at RIT during the pandemic, when masks made communicating especially difficult, if not impossible, for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community … many of whom are lip readers like himself. As part of a committee tasked with solving various student issues, Seth helped devise an alternative way of ordering food on campus, where the order went up on a TV screen. “It helped alleviate a lot of the stress deaf and hard-of-hearing students were facing, such as those working in food services and trying to take orders. People would get frustrated when their orders weren’t understood and would start yelling them out through their masks. But the deaf and hard-of-hearing community didn’t realize the frustration and couldn’t interpret the orders through people’s masks.

“The best part is that the new system will remain in place and be so helpful, even without the mask issue. It really was a step up for future deaf and hard-of-hearing students. I wanted to make a bigger impact on college campuses and that was a really rewarding project for that.”

Here at Stony Brook, Seth joined the Accessibility Committee, chaired by Glenn Dausch from the Office of Equity and Access (OEA) with the goal of helping to promote and advance accessibility in similar ways. And he feels he can bring a different perspective to his team and the University based on his experiences.

Personally, too, Seth couldn’t be happier to be back on campus and back on Long Island. “As a student, I loved college. And I love being around students now – they’re so much fun. And this job lets my creativity flow. It’s really just a perfect fit for me altogether.”

As a bonus, Seth now lives down the block from his parents (who will stop by with leftovers at times, or grab a quick meal with him), as well as living close to his brother, wife and one-year-old niece, and his sister and her soon-to-be husband.

“There were a lot of really great reasons to come back home and to launch my career at Stony Brook in Student Life. It was the best decision I could make,” says Seth.