Leading change and meeting new people along the way is what the new associate dean of the School of Business and Leadership (SBL) hopes to accomplish. Rochelle Ruffer, Ph.D., is passionate about teaching and helping Nazareth students transform into working professionals.
Ruffer graduated cum laude with honors in economics from Colgate University. She received her master’s and doctorate from University of Wisconsin-Madison in economics. Ruffer brings professional experience from other institutions and consulting before she joined the Nazareth faculty in 2008. She enjoys when alumni come back to visit and share their professional success stories with her. She also feels blessed to work with the SBL faculty who work hard on a daily basis and are open to change to enhance the student experience.
She has experienced how mentoring and relationships matter. As a first year student, Ruffer took a principles of economics class from a dynamic professor who has continued to this day to be a mentor and friend. That one course experience helped her choose economics as her major. She had the opportunity to study abroad in London her senior fall semester, studying economics and theater. Studying abroad remains one of the best experiences of her life and she always encourages Nazareth students to do so if they are able. Ruffer’s father played a large role in her choice to go to graduate school immediately after college and he remains a confidant and advisor on higher education matters, since he was a faculty member, dean, and president of two institutions.
Ruffer was the chair of the undergraduate programs in SBL for the last four years, where she enjoyed managing the diverse academic environment in a collaborative manner. Since being at Nazareth, she has helped lead the creation, removal, and reimagining of several majors and minors in order to best fit market place demands. Based on her work as chair, the role expanded into that of associate dean under the direction of Ken Rhee, Ph.D., dean of SBL.
In her new role, Ruffer hopes to communicate to prospective families, the Rochester community, and beyond the innovative changes that are being made in the SBL. She sees how innovative the department is, and she would like prospective families and employers to also realize SBL’s benefits. She hopes to help bring even more hands-on learning into the classroom, whether through case studies, class discussions with leaders from the business community in Rochester, or project-based learning to solve real business problems. This will help students enhance their skills and create a more engaged learning experience for students and help them prepare more for the workplace. Ruffer wants to help show that the Nazareth vision to provide a student-centered education has helped our SBL students be successful once they graduate. “We continue to improve upon that experience for students to help prepare them for their life's work,” she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment