Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Faculty Chronicles (TFC) podcast, sponsored by the Touro Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), is about building community, connection, and conversation. It will bring to life the stories behind the great works of Touro faculty, across disciplines in all our schools, focusing on classroom innovation in teaching and learning, science, business, medicine, education, wellness and more.
00:00:00:21 - 00:00:29:10
Elizabeth
Welcome to a new episode of The Faculty Chronicles. I'm Elizabeth Uni, associate professor and chair of the Department of Social Behavioral and Administrative Sciences with the Chartered College of Pharmacy in New York. Our guest for the day is Professor Gina Bergman. Gina Burrell is the director of General Education, chair of the Department of Speech and Communication and an assistant professor of speech and communication for total undergraduate division in New York.
00:00:30:00 - 00:01:01:11
Elizabeth
She recently received the prestigious 2022 Presidential Award for Service to Tara University from Preston Kadish. She teaches communication courses in public speaking and presentation, Interpersonal and Human Communication and Event Management. She co-hosts Tara University's podcast The Faculty Chronicles. She chairs, co-chairs and actively serves on all nine university committees, half of which are appointments by President Kadish or senior management.
00:01:01:23 - 00:01:28:16
Elizabeth
She has presented at tomorrow's annual Assessment Summit in 2021 and 22, as well as has presented topics on best practices in communication and leadership for Tara's Graduate School of Education. Graduate Council Te comm. Our next guest Faculty Senate. She was a senior operating managers at Scholastic in the Department of Communication, where she worked with J.K. Rowling on her Harry Potter book tour.
00:01:29:03 - 00:01:38:11
Elizabeth
She also served as the director of special events at the New York Historical Society for five years. Gina, welcome to the podcast.
00:01:39:08 - 00:01:43:23
Gina
Thank you. I'm very glad to be here and glad to be with you, Elizabeth.
00:01:45:08 - 00:01:50:09
Elizabeth
Yeah, it is interesting when one co-host can interview the other co-hosts.
00:01:50:19 - 00:01:51:16
Gina
Absolutely.
00:01:52:14 - 00:02:00:01
Elizabeth
For our listeners. Tell us a little bit about your academic journey at Turtle Bay from where you started to now.
00:02:00:14 - 00:02:33:14
Gina
When I came to Touro, it was back in 1998 out of graduate school, and I learned about a job in speech and communication. It was an adjunct job. I had done some teaching at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and I thought, well, what a great fit. When I learned about the position, I interviewed for it a couple of times with then the Chair, how Wicky, and then I was hired and I started teaching and I absolutely loved it myself.
00:02:33:24 - 00:02:46:16
Elizabeth
And I think we kind of talked about what is your position now? You're now chair the Department of Speech and Communication. That's very interesting. You start working in the department and then eventually you work your way up to being the chair of the department.
00:02:47:07 - 00:03:18:20
Gina
The way that you just framed that. Elizabeth It's so true. I started with humble beginnings as an adjunct, really loving it, and I've never really stopped my passion for teaching and speech and communication because I think it's the foundation to everything, everything you do and in any of the disciplines and in any of the majors, you must be able to explain, be an excellent explainer of ideas and thoughts.
00:03:19:04 - 00:03:39:10
Gina
I did. I worked my way up and became chair. I think that speaks a lot for the opportunities that Touro offers, and it speaks a lot for just the innovation and excitement that has happened in Touro and at Touro over the last several years.
00:03:39:10 - 00:04:04:02
Elizabeth
And you are now an integral part of Turrell because you received the Choice Presidential Award for service in 2022. And I know you do a lot of service, etcetera. You are in nine committees, either as a chair or as a co-chair, and you're very active in these committees. So among all of the services that you have done at Toro, tell us about your favorite to services.
00:04:05:01 - 00:04:39:21
Gina
That's really hard. I can tell you about two, but they are among my favorite. Serving on the Women's Leadership Council has been very rewarding. I've learned a lot. I was one of the charter members and now we are awarding women leaders at Touro. And so I've seen the growth interject three of that committee. I serve on a committee called Project Strive, and that was a started, I believe, in 2018, and now we're reinvigorating that committee.
00:04:40:09 - 00:05:08:08
Gina
That is a committee that really looks at student success, not only in terms of retention and some of the traditional ways we look at student success, but also it looks at student success in terms of what can we do, how can we serve, how can we be better at being student centered, listening to them and meeting the moment and the needs of the students because they've changed since the pandemic of 2019.
00:05:08:15 - 00:05:57:13
Gina
Being on that committee is wonderful. And then I have one more, just one more. I have to say that I have learned a tremendous amount co-chairing the General Education Committee because we have eight goals. This is all part of my job. But really co-chairing the General Education Committee and working with faculty across disciplines and being able to understand the core and fundamentals values of how important it is for students to connect the dots even beyond their own discipline, to be able to be productive citizens, to be able to converse and speak outside of your major, within your major, and to make those human connections, to be able to speak to people that are in your
00:05:57:13 - 00:06:31:04
Gina
class, from other cultures, from other disciplines. An interest that's all part of general education, understanding science is understanding how to be a good writer. Math plays an important part in the sciences as well as other parts of a student's journey, and it's also important to be an excellent critical thinker. I call it an essential thinker because you essentially have to think about all your strand of edges toward your future in terms of your personal and professional lives.
00:06:31:04 - 00:06:54:04
Gina
So I would say that being the director of general education and serving as a co-chair, along with the Director of Assessment, which is Eric Linden has and working under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Goldschmidt and Dean Boylan, Vice President Dean Boylan has been an absolute eye opening experience and a marvelous experience.
00:06:54:23 - 00:07:23:22
Elizabeth
Well, that's really, really beautiful to hear how you are serving in all these diverse committees and enjoying each one of them. But as you said in the beginning, you were teaching at Rutgers and then you heard about this opening at Total and you came here to teach. But then you have been doing surveys. Of course, service is one part of our academy and smartness abilities, and you have been doing this for a very long time.
00:07:24:11 - 00:07:35:01
Elizabeth
But what was that defining moment for you when you realized that series is a part of your identity at oral?
00:07:35:01 - 00:08:26:06
Gina
That's an excellent question. I think the moment was when I realized that being able to communicate and network and form partnerships with other faculty and staff from the graduate school, from the medical divisions across campus, graduate school, undergraduate school was important, I think, to my personal growth and professional growth, but really important to just exchange ideas. I worked at the Graduate School of Business and I taught a course in strategic management, and that was another way I was able to work in partnership with other faculty, other teams, and take all of the information that I've learned and bring it back into my own courses.
00:08:26:16 - 00:08:59:02
Gina
It has helped me to become a better communicator, ask better questions, form deeper and more meaningful relationships with the people that I partner with. For instance, Dr. Elizabeth SUNY. We serve on Kettle and bring on that committee with you. And one time we did a round robin about what we all wanted to contribute, and I remember you saying that you wanted to contribute by perhaps doing more communication and a podcast, and that was something that I had in the back of my mind had spoken to the Provost about.
00:08:59:07 - 00:09:19:17
Gina
And when you said that I just reached out to you, I didn't know you. We've never really had a conversation, but I knew what. I just felt deeply that that was the right thing to do, to at least ask the question, Are you interested in partnering with me and putting forth a proposal to form this podcast? You could have said, Well, no, I'm busy.
00:09:19:17 - 00:09:45:04
Gina
I don't know you, who is this? Blah blah, But you didn't. You immediately said, I would absolutely love to form this partnership. Really? That's what it's all about. Sometimes it's just taking a leap of faith, jumping over the precipice and landing on your feet and making something happen that's positive. And I just feel really proud of being able to work with you and of the work that we've done to shape this initiative for a total university.
00:09:45:04 - 00:09:49:06
Gina
Our podcast, The Faculty Chronicles. Dun dun da How do you like that?
00:09:49:06 - 00:10:12:18
Elizabeth
I love it. And for our listeners out there, this is the 25th episode we are actually recording. We are airing for you guys. So if you want to listen to the previous 24 episodes, please login and listen to the previous episodes where we have interviewed different people. So the one often heard thing from faculty is that there is no time to do surveys.
00:10:12:18 - 00:10:25:23
Elizabeth
And it's true. They're doing a lot of things they have to do teaching you how to meet with your students. You have to grade year assignments and you still have a life to live. So how do you find time to do all this service?
00:10:27:00 - 00:10:53:13
Gina
Well, Nelson Mandela says everything seems impossible until you do it. You know that you have these initiatives, you have these meetings, you have these conversations that have to get done. They're on the calendar. You just buckle down. Sometimes it's a lot of compartmentalizing. It's just narrowly focusing on one thing at a time, trying to do what is manageable.
00:10:53:22 - 00:11:18:00
Gina
And I will say that sometimes I you know, I get off track. I think we all do. And I try not to beat myself up about it, because if you beat yourself up about the moments where you feel like you are at your wits end, then you just sort of tumble into those habits. So I try to compartmentalize, narrowly focused, look at what's ahead of me plan.
00:11:18:00 - 00:11:39:00
Gina
What is the most important task that at hand that I must complete? Do I work from list? Yes, I do. Do my list look like something that a mad professor would would have? Yes, because sometimes it's scratched out and I've written something else and it's all over the place. I tear it up, I throw it away, I start over.
00:11:39:20 - 00:12:03:20
Gina
But I always keep in mind that I'm getting toward the finish line. This has to be done. What is the most important? What can I say? Do first do next, do last, and what can I ignore? And that's kind of my strategy. And I would say it works about 90% of the time. And then there's that 10% of the time where I find myself playing catch up.
00:12:04:05 - 00:12:11:22
Gina
But for me again, do first, do next, do last. Forget about it. That's my strategy.
00:12:12:18 - 00:12:19:14
Elizabeth
That sounds like a great mantra. It's prioritizing, prioritizing, prioritizing very.
00:12:19:14 - 00:12:21:15
Gina
Good prioritizing. Yes.
00:12:23:16 - 00:12:47:24
Elizabeth
So so, you know, we used to work in the college level committees within your school, within your department. There's a level of comfort there. Right. You know, the people around, you know, your work and then your car by the Deans or the Paroles Office or the president's office and say, Hey, Gina, can we work on this thing? Now, you are working at the university level, but you don't know everyone around there.
00:12:47:24 - 00:13:05:20
Elizabeth
You need to reach out to the Toro College of Medicine or you need to reach out to the graduate school of social work and how to get work done. How did that work for you? How did you become comfortable with that? Reaching out and working with different people? Of course your major is communication. This is what Jesus specialty in.
00:13:06:05 - 00:13:09:00
Elizabeth
But how did that all work out for you?
00:13:09:00 - 00:13:33:00
Gina
Elizabeth I am not afraid to say what I don't know and what I need help with. And I'm not afraid to go to people that have that expertise and say, I can learn from you and I think we can make this a very good we can have a very good outcome from this particular project. This is what I need to know.
00:13:33:21 - 00:13:59:10
Gina
Can you explain that? And I'm not afraid to do that. I have always been a person that says it's best to go to experts, then try to pretend that you know something, that you need more information about. And that's one thing that I do, and I am very honest and upfront about it. And I feel like people do that with me, that I'm often asked for my opinion or what I would do.
00:13:59:10 - 00:14:24:14
Gina
And can you role play this scenario and how might you think about that? I do the same with other people and with people that I don't know because I feel like we're all in this together in terms of if we're working on a project, we want a positive outcome. We want it to be successful. It's a team effort, so why not depend on each other to get to the finish line?
00:14:24:20 - 00:14:48:17
Gina
Why not hold hands together in the race to the end of the road? And I think those are just kind of simple ways and honest ways to figure something out about working at a level that's so important that institutional level. And I'm and also I've been a part of t TED.com, which was Patty's talk. And our provost Posts project.
00:14:48:17 - 00:15:08:24
Gina
And I know that you too were a member of that team. And being in that cohort taught me so much. It gave me a lot of what I call blind courage, or just to be kind of fearless about things that I don't know because if you don't know, you don't know to be afraid of it right? You don't know the hesitation.
00:15:08:24 - 00:15:37:18
Gina
If you just simply ask the question. The only thing somebody can say to you is I don't have time. I don't know, talk to somebody else. Those are perfectly fine answers. I'm okay with that because I'm going to go to the next person if they tell me to, you know? So that's really how I am able to work at the institutional level and also continue to work at the undergraduate level because there's always new faculty coming in.
00:15:37:18 - 00:15:51:13
Gina
There's always questions that come up, initiatives that need to be evaluated or talked about or discussed. So everything's perpetually moving and emotion.
00:15:52:09 - 00:16:06:15
Elizabeth
Oh, it's awesome. So you have done again, a lot of series, different types of committees. That is one of your favorite memories of a series.
00:16:06:15 - 00:16:37:17
Gina
Whoa. That's again, another good question. But there are so, so many memories I can remember. Again, I'm going all the way back to the Women's Leadership Council at the very beginning, and this is a kind of funny story. Well, it wasn't funny at the time, but it's funny now. We were doing a presentation and we were in one of the big sort of conference rooms and the technology was not serving us as well as it should.
00:16:38:01 - 00:17:07:22
Gina
And it was at that moment that I learned that you sometimes have to walk away from technology, take all that, you know, and then just begin to do a good old fashioned presentation show and tell conversation about what the entire presentation is about without the help of technology. And then in the meantime, the technical people behind me, they're plugging things in, the lights are flashing, things are going completely wacko.
00:17:08:11 - 00:17:35:12
Gina
And then but you just have to maintain a certain amount of stick to itiveness, focus, stay forward, acknowledge that there is a problem. I think the main thing is when people pretend that something is not crashing and burning and we're having technical difficulties right now. But you know what? We can continue. Many of you have questions that you have sent.
00:17:35:12 - 00:18:02:15
Gina
Let's let's let's go there. Let's talk about these questions. So you have to be able to segway. You have to be very improvizational. It's all about the recovery. It's never about the mistake. It's about how you look as the mistake is happening and where you are going to get those moments of making everything come back to normalcy or as normal as you can make it.
00:18:03:02 - 00:18:35:04
Gina
And that's I've had several of those. Sometimes it's technology sometimes, and you've probably experienced this when you've been doing a presentation and an audience member will ask a question. And that question throws off sort of the entire trajectory of where you're going. So how do you freeze frame that? I always use that phrase, let's freeze frame what you just said, because that's an important question and let's redirect and I will personally talk to you about that offline.
00:18:35:13 - 00:19:04:10
Gina
So you have to have these strategies to not get thrown off your purpose. That's what I've learned. And they often serve me in times of when things aren't going exactly the way is planned. Even the best laid plans can go awry. You have to just know how to recover and do it with some grace and some dignity and not sort of blame anything or anybody in that moment and just keep the wheels turning beautiful.
00:19:04:10 - 00:19:08:11
Elizabeth
I love the way you said it. It's about recovery and not the mistake.
00:19:08:16 - 00:19:10:12
Gina
Right. It's the truth. Yes.
00:19:11:04 - 00:19:17:15
Elizabeth
So what is your service philosophy?
00:19:17:15 - 00:19:47:24
Gina
This is something that my on 103 years old and she just passed away. But she used to always say you have to treat other people no matter who they are, no matter what they say and what they do, the way that you would like to be treated under those same circumstances, even if it's difficult. So you have to find a way to recast the die, even when you feel defensive or even if you feel under stress or if the circumstance feels negative.
00:19:47:24 - 00:20:17:03
Gina
You have to find a way to get through those moments and heal yourself and make this situation work as best as possible. In other words, don't come unglued. Understand that people sometimes will say things and they don't really even know that they've said something that is not appropriate and you just find a way to self-correct and decide. Even in that moment, is it worth making a correction with them?
00:20:17:03 - 00:20:36:01
Gina
And usually it isn't. There just ways to treat people the way in all circumstances and under all conditions that you would love to be treated should those circumstances and conditions you be faced with? And that's kind of my philosophy. It comes from my family.
00:20:36:01 - 00:21:04:20
Elizabeth
Wow, That's pretty powerful and strong. Well, we are almost at the end of our episode. Thank you so much for coming to our conversation today. And once again, congratulations on receiving the Service award from Victoria University. It's such a prestigious award. Congratulations again and thank you to our listeners for listening to this episode with Jenna Barber. And this episode also concludes our episode.
00:21:04:20 - 00:21:15:18
Elizabeth
Fauci said to And stay tuned for season three, which will be coming up in the 23 academic year. Thank you all so much.
00:21:15:18 - 00:21:17:06
Gina
Thank you, Elizabeth.