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Faith-sharing Fridays: Dr. Heidi Bostic
RECORDED ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2020
Presented by Dr. Heidi Bostic, Dean, Helen Way Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, Marquette University
Moderated by Dr. Kathy Coffey-Guenther, Arts '85, Grad '88, '98, Senior Mission & Ignatian Leadership Specialist, University Advancement, Marquette University
Start your month by joining us for inspiration, conversation and community as we discuss our varying faith journeys, beliefs and the people we have met along the way. Marquette leaders will reflect on their faith as we explore these holy invitations in our lives and the influence a growing faith can have on us over a lifetime. All are welcome for this inspiring monthly gathering!
More about this session
Dr. Heidi Bostic is dean of the Helen Way Klingler College of Arts and Sciences. She has a broad portfolio of leadership experience in higher education. Across these roles, Dr. Bostic has fostered interdisciplinary innovation; promoted the success of faculty, staff and students; and advocated for diversity and inclusion.
As visiting associate provost at Furman University, Dr. Bostic led interdisciplinary initiatives involving research, curriculum and community engagement. Focused on student success, she developed and taught a course on "Designing a Good Life." Dr. Bostic served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and professor of French at the University of New Hampshire, where she launched the Grand Challenges Initiative and was co-principal investigator on a multiyear grant from the Mellon Foundation to enable more community college students to transfer to UNH and complete a four-year degree.
At Baylor University, Dr. Bostic served as the inaugural director of interdisciplinary programs for the College of Arts and Sciences and launched the STEM and Humanities Initiative. She also chaired the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures. Prior to her time at Baylor, she was a faculty member at Michigan Tech, where she also served as interim chair of the humanities department.
A Fulbright Scholar to Chile, Dr. Bostic received the National Teaching Competition Award and the Theodore E.D. Braun Research Travel Award from the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, won the Distinguished Teaching Award at Michigan Tech, and was named Higher Education Administrator of the Year by the Texas Foreign Language Association. She participated in the Management Development Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Academy for Innovative Higher Education Leadership, jointly sponsored by Arizona State University and Georgetown University.
Dr. Bostic’s research and publications span 18th-century French literature, contemporary feminist theory, narrative studies and higher education. Representative recent essays include “The Humanities Must Engage Global Grand Challenges,” “Practicing Community: The Future of Liberal Learning,” and “Prepare Students (and Ourselves) for Meaningful Work.”
After studying at Creighton University and then earning her undergraduate degree at the University of Nebraska Omaha, Dr. Bostic completed a graduate degree at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and her master’s and doctoral degrees at Purdue University.
Dr. Kathy Coffey-Guenther currently serves as the Senior Mission & Ignatian Leadership Specialist in University Advancement at Marquette University. Additionally, Kathy serves/has served as adjunct faculty for undergraduates and clinical adjunct faculty for graduate students at Marquette University. Kathy received a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Marquette University and a certificate in spiritual direction from the Aquinas Institute of Theology. For many years, Kathy has worked with a particular emphasis in Ignatian spirituality as a means for healthy spiritual and emotional living. Kathy has also served as a spiritual director, speaker and consultant to religious congregations, clergy and religious, and parishes focusing on the work of community building, conflict resolution and spiritual growth. Kathy serves as current consultant for diaconate formation in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and served as the past Co-Chair of the Community Advisory Board for Clergy Abuse in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.