Get to Know Julie Gedro, Dean of the College of Business
Julie Gedro is dean of the recently formed College of Business. Ahead, she shares her love for the city of Rochester, goals for the new college, and lessons she’s learned throughout her career in higher education.
What is your current hometown?
I was born and raised on the Virginia Peninsula. I currently live in Rochester, New York. It is a city with a rich cultural, industrial, entrepreneurial, and social justice history, and it is a place where I can still feel, see, and hear that legacy in daily life. I live, for instance, less than two miles from Susan B. Anthony’s gravesite at Mount Hope Cemetery, and this proximity is symbolic and meaningful for me. Rochester has a compelling combination of grit and beauty.
What inspired your career path, and how did you transition to working in higher ed?
Learning, growth and development have been the throughline in my career journey. I have always been drawn to learning and helping others learn, whether on the tennis court, through corporate training, through human resource management and development, as faculty, and as a dean.
My route into higher education was in some ways a long one. After working at a couple of country clubs, I transitioned into corporate training roles with the longest being in financial software. I served in human resource roles at the phone company in Atlanta, Georgia. Concurrently, I returned to school twice, earning my MBA and then Ed.D. Through a fortuitous series of events and conversations, I discerned a calling to academia as a fulltime vocation.
What’s one goal you have for the new College of Business?
One goal is to lead and facilitate an organization that draws on the strengths and talents of every faculty and staff member so that we may serve as an engine for individual learning and transformation. I envision strong content and meaningfulness for a program, and a strong and recognized reputation of our degree. For me, the formation of our College of Business is a moment of building and refining.
What did you learn from your past positions at SUNY Empire that you’ll be applying to your work going forward?
As dean of the School of Business, I developed a solid understanding of what is vital to this kind of role: quality and relevance of our offerings, program development, enrollment management, financial stewardship, outcomes assessment, and continuous improvement. I have learned how to leverage my cognition and data-informed aspects of leadership as well as my intuition.
If you weren’t working in higher ed, what would you be doing?
I would likely be in a human resource role in corporations that serve sports or tech. I would prefer to be in a role where I could help to build environments where people can do their best work.