New Dean of Student Success Richie Gebauer talks about his new role at 今日吃瓜 in the below Q&A.
How long have you been at 今日吃瓜?
I began at 今日吃瓜 in mid-September so I am just entering my third month here on campus. I鈥檓 very excited to be a part of this community.
What do you do as Dean of Student Success? Is this a new role at the college?
This position is a bit of a different spin, based on the vision of Dean Burrell-McRae, on the Dean of Studies position that was left vacant with the retirement of Dean Balthazar. In this new role, I鈥檓 charged with leading a new Department of Student Success in the Undergraduate Dean鈥檚 Division that includes the institution鈥檚 new class dean model, global education, fellowships, access services, and academic support.
I strongly believe that to ensure student success, institutions must seek to effectively serve the whole student both in and outside of the classroom. This can鈥檛 be achieved without a strong collaborative culture that involves our faculty and student affairs colleagues. I hope our department can contribute to that type of culture, a culture that recognizes collaboration as a fluid process characterized by trust and shared decision-making and one that is truly integrative in its effort to contribute toward holistic student learning.
How did you get involved with this sort of work? What are some of the previous jobs you've held?
Over the past almost 17 years, I served in a multitude of capacities at Cabrini University, most recently as their Assistant Dean for Retention and Student Success. I found my place in this sort of work when I served as the founding director of Cabrini University鈥檚 comprehensive first-year experience (FYE), which saw academic learning communities as the foundational piece of a student鈥檚 first year. It was these efforts at Cabrini that led to an abundance of external opportunities beyond the university, serving as a resource faculty member at the Washington Center at Evergreen State College, participating in multi-institutional research through the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University, sitting on the editorial review boards for two journals hosted by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, and for several leadership positions I held within the National Learning Community Association. I will forever be in debt to Cabrini for affording me the space to participate in each of these valuable opportunities, which continuously informed my work in learning communities, FYE, and ultimately student success.
What would you like students to know about you?
I am a father of two daughters, Sawyer (7) and Cora (4), and a lot of my world outside of work is spending time with them as they grow up and seek out their place in this world. I also was a student-athlete in college, wrestling at both Franklin and Marshall College and James Madison University (as a graduate student). Wrestling was a huge part of my life as I either competed or coached from the age of five until I began my doctoral work in 2014. I鈥檝e recently returned to the wrestling community as I engage in mindset coaching for a few wrestlers who compete in both Utah and South Dakota.
What do you like to do when you're not working? Do you have any hobbies or interests?
Our family lives in downtown Philadelphia, and so we spend the majority of our time outdoors embracing what the city has to offer. My wife Katie and I have both become runners later in life and so I am often out running on the Schuylkill River Trail. My daughter Sawyer has also developed an interest in running and so I facilitate a running club for her and other children in our neighborhood. We also can be found regularly touring the park scene around the city, most recently checking out the Anna Cm Verna Playground in FDR park, which has a mega swing set and what to a 4-year-old must look like a death-defying slide.