The administration building
David Scibilia/The Bona Venture
BY CHRIS DOODY, STAFF WRITER
Jeff Gingerich, university president, formed BonaLeads to provide faculty leaders with new insights into the inner workings of higher education at St. Bonaventure University.
“We have tremendously talented staff and faculty at St. Bonaventure,” said Gingerich. “It’s important that we provide different kinds of professional development to make sure that we are nurturing future leadership so that we can continue to build a positive future for Bona’s.”
BonaLeads acts as a way to provide more workplace training for faculty and staff, in a way that is intended to be more engaging, said Gingerich.
“These will be more similar to discussion seminars than they will be trainings,” said Gingerich. “Each month, we have selected a different division in the university that we will concentrate on and focus our readings and discussions on leadership in that aspect.”
Each session will have a different focus to highlight everyone’s department.
Some of the different topics consist of mission integration, finance, academics, enrollment, student affairs, governance, athletics and advancement, said Gingerich.
Betsy Gingerich, wife of Gingerich, will be using her field experience to assist in BonaLeads.
“Betsy has been a leader in higher education for over 30 years, both in enrollment management and working in the offices of two different college presidents,” said Gingerich. “She has many insights that will be incredibly helpful to our discussions.”
Members from all different departments of the university were selected, from university ministries to the athletic department.
“We invited selected individuals to participate in the program through my own experience with faculty and staff, as well as suggestions from the senior leadership team,” said Gingerich.
Gingerich plans to introduce a new group of participants annually.
Gingerich is offering BonaLeads as one way to accomplish more transparency and communication about what it means to strategically sustain a university.
Faculty and staff participating in this session on BonaLeads are; Pamina Abkowitz, School of Education, Marty Blind, university Advancement, Derien Braxton, Dennis R. DePerro School of Health Professions, Ryan Clingan, athletics, Mary Coombs, School of Business, Rob DeFazio, Student Affairs, Melissa DeRose, University Advancement, Beth Eberth, Marketing & Communications, Dr. Kaplan Harris, School of Arts & Sciences, Fr. Steve Kuehn, O.F.M, University Ministries, Kyle Leslie, Human Resources, Steve Mest, Athletics, Adriane Spence, Student Success Center, Dr. Christine Uhl, School of Arts & Sciences, Alexis Watson, Athletics, Caitlin Watson, Athletics, Caitlin Webster, Events & Conferences, Dean Whitcomb, Enrollment, Tara Zak, President’s Office.
doodycd24@bonaventure.edu
