For St. Thomas President Julie Sullivan, the past year has been filled with a whirlwind of new hires, strategic planning and community engagement. Sullivan, the first layperson and first woman to be president of the university, is now looking forward to the second year of her presidency with enthusiasm.
Sullivan said she is pleased with what she and her leadership team have accomplished in the past year and is looking forward to what they will achieve in the future.
“I’m more excited about being the president of St. Thomas today than I was when I started, and obviously I was very excited when I started because I just made the decision to come and to move here for this job,” Sullivan said. “But after a year, I’m even more excited.”
One of the most enjoyable parts of her presidency, Sullivan said, has been making connections with both the St. Thomas and local communities. To connect with alumni, she went on a nationwide visiting tour, meeting graduates in New York, Florida, Texas and Arizona. Sullivan met more than 2,000 alumni and said she was impressed by their devotion to the school.
“I was just so inspired by the passion of our alumni and how proud they are of St. Thomas,” she said. “So many of them would share stories about how their experience here had made a difference in their lives and really had been transformative to them in terms of putting them on a path to a life of fulfillment and a life of being prepared to succeed in the world.”
Sullivan also spent the past year focusing on building her own leadership team because of the university’s optional retirement incentive program and the retirement of St. Thomas employees close to the Rev. Dennis Dease, president emeritus.
“I had five really key senior leadership positions to fill last year, so I spent quite a bit of time last year recruiting people,” Sullivan said. “I feel like we really successfully filled those positions … I’m feeling like I probably have the strongest leadership team I’ve had the pleasure to work with at any university.”
Since moving to Minnesota, Sullivan has joined multiple committees and task forces exploring issues of diversity, finances, education and more. This September, Sullivan received a Celebrating Twin Cities Women Leaders award. Sullivan credited St. Thomas for giving her the opportunity to get involved with the community and make her eligible for the award.
“(St. Thomas) has really given me a platform to be out in the community, to be involved in community organizations, to get involved in community dialogue about important issues,” she said. “Frankly, the honor with the Twin Cities Women Leaders is because of my position at St. Thomas and because of the reputation that St. Thomas has in the community as an organization of impact.”
Junior Stephanie Smith said she has been happy with the job Sullivan is doing.
“I think she’s doing great. I think that she’s much different than what St. Thomas has seen before,” Smith said. “I’ve been to a couple talks that she’s held about being a woman president and being in the workplace.”
Senior Michael Baumgartner also said he believes Sullivan is doing well as president.
“I know Father Dease was doing a great job running the university, and I haven’t seen any negative changes since her taking the reins as president; so as far as I can tell, I think things are going pretty well,” Baumgartner said.
Looking ahead, Sullivan said she hopes to spend the next year enacting the university’s new strategic plan, which she said should be approved by the St. Thomas Board of Trustees this November. The plan focuses on curriculum, diversity inclusion, Catholic values and more. Sullivan said the hard work is still ahead.
“I’m feeling like we’re on the same page with some important work we want to do,” she said. “It’s going to be hard and challenging, but it’s going to be fun.”
Grace Pastoor can be reached at past6138@stthomas.edu.