Charting the Future: Sarah Drivdahl
Thank you for your attention to these video messages we send about “Charting the Future” at Northwest University. One person who will have a substantial future impact on our community is Dr. Sarah Drivdahl, our new provost (chief academic officer). One of the things I’m always thinking about as president is the question of succession planning, and years ago, I marked Professor Drivdahl as a future leader. At the first good opportunity, we promoted her to dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and began training her to take over as provost.
Not just anyone can guide the academic operations at a Jesus-first university like Northwest. Such a leader needs to be what we might call—borrowing a baseball analogy—a five-tool player. To be a credible provost, a person needs a stellar teaching record and strong communications skills; a record of scholarly production complete with research and publication; administrative and management skills; a fundraising orientation; and strong public speaking skills. In addition to that, the provost of Northwest University must have the spirituality and interpersonal skills of a pastor.
Dr. Drivdahl has all of the qualifications to be a great and history-making provost at Northwest. I couldn’t be prouder of her after almost a year of her performance in the role, and I’m happy to introduce her to you here. I’m confident you will enjoy watching her tell her story on this video. A great future awaits us!