Life

Lisa Slavid says she has “always doodled in the margins of everything.” So when we requested her doodles for the pages of the GradPost as a Valentine’s Day 2015 gift to our graduate students, she was only too happy to oblige.

By Patricia Marroquin, Graduate Division Communications Director
Friday, February 13th, 2015 - 3:20pm


A sampling of Lisa Slavid's Peadoodles. Credit: Lisa SlavidLisa Slavid says she has "always doodled in the margins of everything." So when we requested her doodles for the pages of the GradPost as a Valentine's Day gift to our graduate students, she was only too happy to oblige.

Slavid is the Coordinator of Organizational and Performance Management for Housing & Residential Services at UCSB. Her role involves strategic planning, leadership development, and best-practices research. She has worked in the field of Student Affairs and Housing & Residential Services at UCSB for two decades in a variety of roles, including Resident Director, Student Leadership Coordinator, and Coordinator of Strategic Initiatives. Her passion, she says, is to help people and organizations reach their highest potential.

This Student Affairs professional holds a bachelor's degree from Smith College (art, with a focus on oil painting and photography, was one of her majors there) and a master's degree in Counseling from Santa Clara University. Slavid has also been a Semester at Sea sailor. She has traveled as a member of the staff on three academic voyages, twice as Dean of Students, and she sits on Semester at Sea's board of trustees.

A Peadoodle created especially for UCSB graduate students by Lisa Slavid.While doodling has always been a part of her life, it was about five years ago that "the doodles wanted to be drawn front and center, and the 'Peadoodles' just started coming," she said.

At first, Slavid's whimsical creations were centered on puns about food. Now her artwork has been extended to include animals and inanimate objects.

In a 2012 interview with Semester at Sea, she talked about the hundreds of Peadoodles she has drawn. "Even in simplicity, there is a lot of complexity with these little guys," she said.

"I keep them sweet, positive, and mostly innocent," Slavid told the GradPost, "and I love that people send me suggestions as well." Our suggestion for a (Pea)h.D.-related Peadoodle produced the one you see here, a labor of love from Slavid to UCSB graduate students. Some previously drawn Peadoodles with words of love and encouragement are also shown here.

You can enjoy more of Slavid's "Peadoodles" at the Peadoodles Facebook page and on the Peadoodles blog. Semester at Sea also published a Q&A with Dean Slavid.

Happy Doodle Day, er, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone from the GradPost ... and from Lisa Slavid's Peadoodles!

All Peadoodles by Lisa Slavid
Dean Lisa Slavid, right, enjoys a light-hearted moment with Quincy Goodwin, center, of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Siettah Parks from the University of Wisconsin Madison, during a Fall 2012 Semester at Sea voyage. Credit: Melinda LaBrie, Semester at Sea