Todd Pfannestiel他是一个天生的拓荒者
“For me, that’s the adrenaline rush – that same spark that fired in my head when I was in front of a classroom, 看到一个学生的灯亮了. 每次我们取得成功,那火花就会再次燃起."
顿悟像往常一样突然而毫无征兆地到来了.
Todd Pfannestiel was completing his doctorate at the College of William and Mary when the institution offered him the opportunity to do something new and different: teach an undergraduate history course.
教学从来就不是他职业规划的一部分. 他还是俄克拉何马州小学生时的驾驶野心, 后来成为一名多产的高中辩手, was to enter politics, 甚至成为美国总统. Then, 经历了大学生活之后, 他确信终身学习者是他最适合扮演的角色. 但在他作为兼职历史讲师的前50分钟结束时, 他知道他已经找到了他的圣杯.
“当一名大学老师对我来说是一种完全的沉迷, 我喜欢每一分钟,” he recalls.
这是他人生新篇章的开始. Doctorate in hand, 他在克莱里昂大学任教, and within 15 years he had achieved every milestone that defines a successful professor, from positive teaching evaluations to publications to awards for excellence.
“我被校友会评为优秀教师, which was typically awarded to professors who are much further along in their careers, not at the beginning,” he says. He was also named Outstanding Faculty Member by the Student Athletes Advisory Committee as well as the Student Government Association. “My mentality has always been if you’re going to do something, go the whole nine yards. It’s probably a measure of obsessive compulsiveness that I’ve never been diagnosed with – I am not compulsive, but I am obsessive. That’s why I when I became a professor, I knew I would be college president someday.”
He could have continued along the same professorial path quite happily for another 15 years, but he craved a challenge. 教书对他来说是一种深深的满足, he began to wonder how he could have the same kind of impact on a far greater number of students.
“无论我在做什么,我都想做到最好, 我觉得作为一名教授,我已经达到了这个目标,” he says. “我发现自己在问,下一步是什么?”
Choosing Utica
Over the next five years, Dr. Todd, as he is colloquially known, served as dean at Clarion, then provost, and for a time, interim president. He had, in fact, already submitted his application for the presidency there when he was offered the provost role at Utica University. “劳拉·卡萨门托总裁给了我在尤蒂卡的工作, 所以我撤回了Clarion的申请,接受了,” he says.
搬迁并重新开始并不是一个显而易见的选择. He valued loyalty and was reluctant to upend the life and career he had built at Clarion, but his overriding desire to find new opportunities for progress and meaningful change at an institutional level made Utica seem like the right choice at the right time.
“我本来有机会成为Clarion的总裁, but I can honestly say that I had reached the one moment in my professional life when I truly felt a change was going to be good for me personally, 不管有多可怕,” he says. “当我来到这里,见到人们的时候, 我知道我是否要做出改变,去任何地方, it was going to be Utica.”
Utica felt like home to him. It embodied the same passion for teaching that had taken hold of him from his first moment at the front of that classroom at William and Mary. It had a laser focus on student achievement that resonated with him deeply. Just as importantly, it was founded on a principle of continual improvement and a mission-driven spirit of innovation that was unique in his experience.
If you do not like that phone ringing and not knowing who it’s going to be or what challenge is going to be unexpectedly dropped into your lap, 你最好不要当大学校长
“I absolutely believe in the potential and future of Utica because this is an institution that embraces change, 这在高等教育中极为罕见,” he says. “不管讨论有多艰难, at the end of the day we will face challenges head on and make changes if it’s right decision to do so. This is an institution that wants always to be better in terms of how we serve students. That’s where I want to be. If I were at an institution that thought it had it all figured out, I’d probably be a little bored.”
Thriving on the unexpected
When he was chosen as Utica’s next president and the announcement ran in his hometown newspaper in Sapulpa, OK, Pfannestiel saw a social media comment by a high school friend he hadn’t spoken with in more than 30 years.
“他总是说他想当总统,”他的老朋友打趣道. “我想在某些方面他做到了.”
Though it was meant as a joke, there was some truth to his former classmate’s post. The presidency Pfannestiel ultimately was chosen for is perhaps uniquely well-suited to a person of his abilities and general outlook.
As a leader, he thrives on having the opportunity to address often unanticipated challenges, likening it to an addiction.
“If you do not like that phone ringing and not knowing who it’s going to be or what challenge is going to be unexpectedly dropped into your lap, 你最好不要当大学校长,” he says. “For me, that’s the adrenaline rush – that same spark that fired in my head when I was in front of a classroom, 看到一个学生的灯亮了. 每次我们取得成功,那火花就会再次燃起.
“This is why I do this. 我这样做是为了让学校继续前进. 我这样做是为了学生,他们是学校的灵魂. But I also do it for myself.”
He also gets an enormous charge out of the president’s role as an ambassador and a storyteller.
“If my entire presidency was based around meeting students and supporters of the institution, that would be fine with me. To the alumni and the donors, I can tell the Utica story, 因为我是个历史学家,我喜欢讲故事. 以及对学生的尊重, 我喜欢帮助他们,就像我作为一名教员所做的一样,” he says.
当他不再是总统的时候. 托德希望他最后的职业和第一份一样. “The last employment I’ll have before retirement will be teaching in a classroom, 因为那是世界上最美好的感觉. I can’t think of a more rewarding profession than being a university professor,” he says.
And when people ask him what he would like to be remembered for, he has a simple answer.
“绝对没有,”他谦虚而真诚地说. “如果很多人记得大学校长的名字, 他们犯过的错误也有同样的可能, 而不是任何具体的成功. At the end of my tenure, honestly, I would rather people say, ‘Wow, 利记sbo自2023年以来一直在向前发展. 那个我永远念不出姓的总裁是谁? Forgot him.’”
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