Q.  What is your number one priority for the student services division?

A. I have always believed that teaching and learning is the core of what we do in higher education. However, as we consider student development and growth, we have to consider the ways we welcome, orient, connect, develop, retain and graduate students.  While this is everyone's responsibility within the institution, student services must be the driver in looking at the processes in which we best serve students overall.  That being said, I am spending this time looking at how we best serve students and how we can improve upon that work through our organizational structure, services and resources, as well as policies and protocols for assisting students.
 
Q. What can faculty, staff, students and the community expect to see happen in regards to the collective needs of the College over the next year? 

A. Hearing the student voice, recognizing what we can be doing better and ultimately aligning best practices with our strategic planning process in meeting student needs better.  If we can establish a strong organizational structure that improves communication, collaboration and ultimately helps drive student engagement intentionally, I will consider year one a success. 

Q. Are there any immediate upgrades or improvements in student services that you would like to see take place at FSCJ?

A. We need to look at all of our operations that "touch" a student and see what is working and what may need some tweaking. With a new ERP I will be interested in making sure many of the ways we interface with students will be centered on being friendly and informative. 

Q. What advice/thoughts do you have for employees as you join FSCJ?

A. I approach Onboarding with a "look, listen and learn" philosophy hoping to absorb all that I can and learn about the culture of FSCJ, its personnel and, of course, the students.  As I do this I hope people will reach out and invite me to things, provide their own insights and information as appropriate and help connect me to students.  In my experience the one piece of advice/thought that I would share with people is that we can get caught up in all of the intricacies of our daily routines, meetings, etc., but we should remember that ALL OF IT – that is, all we do – is for the students—helping to support them in their journey to success (whatever “success” may mean for them).  Our role is to help reduce the barriers to success in our processes, protocols and daily operations. 

Getting to Know FSCJ’s Vice President of Student Services

Q. What was your favorite food when you were a child?

A. Thursday nights were always the night that I could choose dinner and that always meant hot dogs and macaroni and cheese while watching “Buck Rogers.” 

Q. What's the #1 most played song on your iPod? 

A. I haven’t had an iPod in ages but I tend to be all over musically from Broadway to Jazz to 70s rock to 80s pop to 90s alternative. Throw in a little disco and 60s easy listening and you have the soundtrack to my life.  If I had to isolate that to some artists I would say anything from Elton John to Billy Joel to Whitney Houston to Frank Sinatra to Katy Perry to the Eagles and Led Zeppelin. 

Q. When you have 30 minutes of free-time, how do you pass the time?

A. I typically want to just spend time with my three-year-old son doing whatever he is interested in doing—Thomas the Train, wrestling, throwing a ball, watching a Disney film, you name it.  Those are the best moments. 

Q. What songs are included on the soundtrack to your life?

A. Funny that I wrote soundtrack to my life earlier before ever reading this question—I think it’s a chronology of sorts that come from all of the inspirations in my life—from my grandparents and their love of the likes of Patsy Cline, (“Crazy” or “Blue”), to my parents love of the 60s and 70s, (with the likes of “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” or “Stairway to Heaven” or “Imagine”), to my childhood in the late 70s and 80s with disco and pop and new wave like the Smiths, (namely songs like “I Will Survive” or “Total Eclipse of the Heart” or “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side” or “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”), to my college years and the likes of U2, the Barenaked Ladies, Garth Brooks, or Pearl Jam, (songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “One Week” or “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley).  In general songs that raise an emotion, take me back to a memory, or make me consider the lyrics are going to be something that resonate with me.