The office of the President announced on Friday, Feb. 22, that Carol Bresnahan had been chosen to fill the position of provost/executive vice president at the College.
Bresnahan is currently the vice provost for Academic Programs and Policies and professor of history at the University of Toledo. Her appointment is effective July 2, 2008.
According to College President R. Barbara Gitenstein, Bresnahan was chosen because of her extensive experience in leadership positions. Gitenstein said via e-mail that Bresnahan's previous accomplishments include serving as an American Council on Education fellow.
Gitenstein also wrote about Bresnahan's responsibilities at her former places of employment.
Bresnahan has over the years been responsible for such tasks as implementing a department of History program in service learning, leading an active faculty senate, and evaluating faculty portfolios for promotion and tenure, Gitenstein said.
Gitenstein said she knows the College must challenge itself to meet its goals and accomplish its mission. She said she feels Bresnahan will help to move the College forward.
"(Bresnahan) brings a genuine appreciation of our mission and our success as well as new eyes to help make sure we are never just taking the 'easy' way to success, but rather the most effective way," Gitenstein said.
Bresnahan said she feels her experience at the University of Toledo has helped to prepare her for the challenges she will face at the College.
"Though New Jersey is hundreds of miles away from Ohio, we have a surprising number of common challenges, including accessibility to higher education, assessing our work, attracting and retaining a diverse and talented student body, staff and faculty, and financing the cost of an education," Bresnahan said. "I feel ready to use the skills I have and to develop the new ones I will need in helping (Gitenstein's) leadership team to address these issues."
According to Bresnahan, one of her specific goals is to create a center for teaching and learning, something she said many members of the College community expressed an interest in. She said the center could improve teaching, methods of assessment and advisement, as well as help to develop interdisciplinary classes and majors.
"I would like to engage the campus in a conversation about how to establish such a center," Bresnahan said. "I also believe that creative and striking combinations of disciplines can lead to amazing interdisciplinary collaboration that enriches faculty research and student learning."
Bresnahan was one of three finalist candidates who visited the College between Jan. 29 and Feb. 5. Concetta Stewart, dean of the School of Communications and Theater and associate professor of communications at Temple University, and Elizabeth Paul, interim provost and vice president and professor of psychology at the College, were also considered for the position.
According to Matt Golden, executive director of Public Affairs and Communications, Bresnahan's responsibilities will be broader than those of the position of interim provost and vice president and will include overseeing the living-learning community at the College, enabling collaboration between disciplinary and interdisciplinary aspects of the institution and upholding the College's goals and mission.
