Like most of the students she works with in Franklin Pierce University's College of Graduate and Professional Studies (CGPS), Mary Farrell knows what it's like to work full-time and attend school. For two years, she has been traveling 250 miles round trip one or two nights a week to take courses for a doctorate in higher education. On those nights, she arrives home at midnight and gets up the next morning to be at her Concord office by 9 a.m.

"Between work and studies and home, that's pretty much all I do," she says. "But I love my work and I'm very excited about my degree program."

Farrell is associate dean of CGPS. Her focus, she says, is creating or enhancing policies and procedures necessary for running a college -- registration, applying for graduation, dropping classes, grading, for example. The goal is to make sure students can focus on their studies and experience fast, seamless service with their administrative needs.

A "good tag team"

"This may not sound very exciting," she laughs, "but I love it. Jane (Jane Venzke, CGPS Dean) focuses on creating new programs while I focus on making things work for the students in a predictable, fair and compassionate way. We make a good tag team."

In fact, Dean Venzke is why Farrell is working for CGPS. She started as associate dean in July of 2007 after being recruited by Venzke. They were both in the health education field and had known each other professionally for several years.

"She's the reason I'm here," Farrell says. "Jane is an inspiration to me. She's always looking for ways to develop new programs that are responsive to what people need. She is big minded – she can see the big picture."

Likes to "boss people around"

Farrell started her career as an occupational therapist. Fresh out of undergraduate school at the University of New Hampshire, she went to work at the New Hampshire State Hospital in Concord, working with people with physical and mental disabilities.

"I learned a lot about myself in that job," she says. "I learned I had the capacity to start and finish things and that I could work independently. And I learned I like to 'boss' people around," she laughs. Later, she became director of the occupational therapy program at Concord Hospital.

Her first foray into higher education was at the University of New Hampshire, where she was an assistant professor and fieldwork coordinator in occupational therapy. "I had never taught before," she says, "and I didn't have much confidence in myself as an educator."

Farrell found, however, that not only could she teach, but she enjoyed the higher education culture. "I love the freshness of the students," she says, "and the rhythm. You get to make a fresh start every fall and spring, with a lull in the summer."

She blossomed as an educator, she says, at Notre Dame College in Manchester, where she was an assistant professor in the sciences and physical therapy, eventually becoming dean of the Division of Sciences. After the college closed in 2002, she became an assistant professor at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, then dean of allied health, education and human services at Holyoke Community College.

The college drew students from one of the poorest communities in Massachusetts. They tended to be older students, Farrell says, and English was usually not their first language.

Reaching people "who need and deserve to go to school"

"These students were doing so many other things, including putting food on the table and taking care of their families," Farrell says. "I grew to really appreciate the community college system. It is so heartening because it is reaching people who need and deserve to go to school."

Farrell helped create a cohort system there where a group of 35-40 students had an advocate who knew their culture and language and helped bring them through to their degree. It became a model for attracting and retaining underrepresented students. "The cohort members developed bonds with one another," Farrell says. "Their advocate helped them navigate the system and helped the college understand their cultural values. We had one young man come in and do a workshop about how to be respectful to Hispanic families in the emergency room, for instance.

"Many of the students were coming to three-hour classes at night from full-time jobs," she says. "Their advocate found a restaurant owner who provided them dinner."

After three years at Holyoke, Farrell was recruited to Franklin Pierce, where she found her organizational experience very helpful. Her studies for an Ed.D. have also proved useful. She plans to write her dissertation on leadership in higher education, specifically the role of the dean.

"…no specific training to be a dean"

"There's really no specific preparation to be a dean," she says. "Faculty who go into administration are often disappointed. They find they don't have time for their scholarly work and they don't have as much autonomy as they did as a faculty member."

Though she doesn't know the specifics yet, Farrell plans to research how best to prepare future deans and how to provide them with the ongoing training and support they need. Meanwhile, she continues as a student and administrator and hopes, in a couple of years, to get more sleep.

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