After 42 years of service on the Hilltop, Joan Sattler, dean of the College of Education and Health Science, will retire this May. Molly Cluskey, current associate dean for distance education, will become the interim dean for the next two years.
Sattler was named dean in 1987 and is the first female academic dean in Bradley’s history. During her tenure, she established the Physical Therapy and Health Science Department and many programs at Bradley.
Prior to her time as dean, Sattler held the associate dean position for two months, and then named the interim dean for two years after Bradley decided to merge the College of Education and College of Health Science into one.
“Strategic planning was going on at that time, and they have made some decisions to merge two big colleges, the [dean of education at the time] appointed me to serve as the associate dean, and I said ‘I’ll do this as long as I know you will be here,’” Sattler said. “A month later, literally, he took a job in that summer as a provost in Kentucky. And the other dean retired.”
Sattler was also one of the masterminds behind the Westlake Hall expansion project in 2012.
“We had ongoing meetings and [the construction contractor] would design as we were talking about what our needs are, we would pull in faculty, like who will teach in science labs or counselling labs upstairs, and they helped design exactly what they wanted in these spaces,” Sattler said. “By the time we were done, there was ownership by everybody.”
Sattler said most of her achievements would not be possible without the help of her faculty, students and many mentors along the way. Former Provost Kalman Goldberg was one of these mentors.
“I had the privilege of developing the college with a great team of faculty … Kal Goldberg was very inspirational as a leader, and he helped me start the physical therapy department and the program,” Sattler said. “We have moved, in a couple decades now, from a bachelor’s degree to a master’s degree and now it’s a doctorate in physical therapy.”
As an educator, Sattler also has a lot of proud moments over her time at Bradley.
“I gave a presentation fairly recently, and got an email back from the audience that is a former student. She said the reason she became school superintendent is because of me. Those are the things that just touch my heart,” Sattler said. “Just the feeling that I made a little bit of difference in people’s life, that has been very special.”
Cluskey said that Sattler has been a wonderful dean and leader in the department, and a great personal mentor to her.
“Her love for her faculty and students comes out in her personality … I’ve seen her in situations where she brags on her students, she brags on her faculty,” Cluskey said. “I recall that when I was tenured and promoted to associate professor, she came with a bottle of a champagne to my office and congratulated me.”
Provost Walter Zakahi said that Sattler has left significant impressions in the development of the university.
“Dean Sattler has led one of the most important efforts at Bradley in the last few years,” Zakahi said. “She’s led the effort around online education. We went from having no students who’re online students, just four years ago, to
As the soon-to-be interim dean, Cluskey said there will be challenges, but it will be a smooth transition.
“These are big shoes to fill. I think that one challenge is that coming in behind Joan is a big challenge,” Cluskey said. “This is a wonderful team that we have here as a faculty. Our mission is about students and student success … Joan is leaving this college in a good shape with a good plan.”
