Category: Alumnus

Degree: 2009, MALS

Job Title: Executive Director, Delaware Arts Council

“My current connection to the arts in the state is closely related to the University of Delaware.  UD was the first intellectual home I had when I moved to Delaware.  One of my first classes at the MALS program was “Art in the Twentieth Century”… where we explored the renewed impact of the Mexican Muralism Movement.  By opening this world to me the MALS program nurtured my ongoing involvement with the arts and culture in the state.”

Guillermina Gonzalez is a multicultural professional with experience in the United States, Mexico, and Europe in her successful career as an executive in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors.  She began her career working for multinational organizations in marketing and sales and has since brought her corporate expertise to the nonprofit sector.  Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Delaware Arts Alliance, the highly active arts advocacy group in the state.  Previously, she served as the Executive Director of the advocacy organization Voices Without Borders.  

Dr. Gonzalez is actively involved in the community and serves as the Chair of the Americans for the Arts’ State Arts Action Network and Delaware’s NPR radio WDDE Community Advisory Board.  She has served on the Delaware State Arts Council, as well as on boards of Delaware College of Art and Design, Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, Latin American Community Center, and the AARP Executive Council.  The University of Delaware’s College of Arts and Sciences distinguished Dr. Gonzalez with the Alumni Achievement Award in May 2014.

Dr. Gonzalez has an MBA from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, where she taught marketing and business administration.  She holds a Certificate in Leadership and Public Management and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from the University of Delaware.  She obtained her doctorate in Business Administration at Wilmington University in January 2014.

Degree: 2005, MALS

Job Title: Leader, Market Access Enterprise Solutions

“I knew I would be investing a lot of time earning a degree in addition to working fulltime, so it was vitally important to me to have class time that ensured passion and a quest for learning among a diverse group of people with vibrant interests. In an MBA class, there would be mostly business professionals discussing industry skills, and we likely wouldn’t be discussing Galileo or Hitler or oral history as I did in several courses in the MALS program.   I have never really been interested in a degree that was essentially ‘job training,’ and I was continually in awe of my MALS classmates’ life accomplishments.

“All of the leaders I work for now are enticed by critical thinking from diversely educated individual contributors.  As I evolve in my career, I am impressed by leaders or fellow team members who have a diverse education and a variety of interests.  Experience or education like that can only deepen an individual in business, or in any career.”  

“As a classical ballet student growing up, I was always close to the arts and wanted a curriculum that would allow me to continue that exposure. I was able to pursue an independent study on the history and role of typography with a great professor in Visual Communications, Ray Nichols, as I was about to make a career change into advertising and marketing.  And my synthesis project consisted of an oral history of a former ballet teacher, John White, who was an American ballet dancer with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba when Fidel Castro began the company in the late 1950s.  I even coordinated a viewing of a related documentary, Mirror Dance, on campus, converging my oral history coursework, my synthesis project, and my love of ballet.

“The Oral History class I took with Dr. Roger Horowitz was life-changing. It not only sparked the idea for my final project, but it brought to life the meaningful difference an oral history can make in the world, whether you’re talking about its place in history or our own family lives.”

Jeanille has a BA in International Relations (and Psychology minor) from Saint Joseph’s University and earned her Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from the University of Delaware in 2005.  She started off her career in nonprofit fundraising and marketing at The Rock School for the Pennsylvania Ballet before working in Admissions and Development for the University of Delaware. Jeanille transitioned her career into health advertising and marketing and after working for two leading health advertising agencies, she has been working at AstraZeneca in marketing for the past nine years.  “At this point in my life,” she says, “I hope to rejuvenate that quest for the interdisciplinary that the MALS program fulfilled and the arts by volunteering for local arts organizations.”

Degree: 2022, MALS

Job Title: Retired, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, Hologic

Jim enrolled in the MALS program in 2017 when he “retired” from his job as Senior Director, Corporate Communications, for Hologic, a global healthcare company. The University is not new to Jim. He was an Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Business and Economics from 1973 to 1986.   

For 19 years Jim commuted to Boston where he was a key member of the Hologic communications and marketing team. With an unwavering belief that customers tell a company’s story best, Jim led the group that produced hundreds of e-broadcasts, stories and award-winning videos on how customers use their products. Other memorable years at Hologic included leading the communication strategy to launch direct radiography, digital mammography and breast tomosynthesis (3D mammography). His work there has affected millions of women worldwide.

Jim takes one or two courses every semester. And if asked, he’ll rave about each of them. His favorite experiences are interacting with the students who have significant life experiences as well as the faculty who are world class. He feels fortunate to have the opportunity to study subjects in new fields and to have ample time to explore them.    

Jim has successfully taken knowledge and writings from the MALS classes and applied them to his personal writing and consulting business. A course with Ray Callahan inspired him to publish a story for the Lewes Historical Society. It detailed the history of the mysterious disappearance of the SS Poet, a ship last seen when it cleared Cape Henlopen in October 1980. This US flag vessel disappeared with a crew of 34. 

He wrote a memoir for David Teague’s class that led to a paper about his mother titled “Betty Buehner: A Life Fulfilled.” This memoir was published this Fall in the online issue of Confluence, the Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies. Meg Maguire’s social media course helped him start a Go-Fund-Me effort for Water is Life Kenya, a Delaware-based not-for-profit.   In his spare time Jim is working with Hagley Museum and Library to preserve the industrial films and TV ads made by Cinecraft Productions. Cinecraft rightfully claims itself the “country’s longest standing corporate film and video production house.” 

Degree: 2019, MALS

Job Title: Director of Education & Community Engagement, Delaware Theatre Company

“On its webpage, the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) promises that the program ‘develops the timeless qualities of liberal education at the graduate level: to think freely, to imagine adventurously, to choose discriminately, and to understand deeply.’ This is what drew me to the program and I have not been disappointed.

“The MALS program has provided me the opportunity to rediscover the sheer joy of thinking and learning. My objective is to use the MALS experience to guide me as I consider the next stages of my development and the successes I have had has made me realize that old rocking chair is not getting me.”

Charles Conway is a current student in the MALS program. He is Director of Education and Community Engagement for the Delaware Theatre Company.

Degree: 2016, MALS

Job Title: Retired, Higher Education Publishing

Courtesy of Google and a feature article in the News Journal, I first learned of the MALS program a few years before I expected to retire from a career in higher educational publishing. My retirement plan was thus decided. As one who has always embraced rather than resisted change, I envisioned MALS as a stellar opportunity to transition from a protracted, all-consuming work-work-work existence to a new, stimulating life phase. MALS did not disappoint.

I’ve always been devoted to learning. On my first ever day of formal schooling, I arose much earlier than required and danced about the still dark house in excited anticipation. Unlike many of my peers, in the years that followed, I was never overjoyed as the school year ended. MALS eliminated some of the less savory aspects of my undergrad experience – cramming for exams, peer competitiveness, pressure to excel, requirements that held little interest, and those easy-to-get-lost-in oversized classrooms. Instead I found that MALS offered appealing topics, committed and learned faculty with superb teaching expertise, and fellow students who celebrated the different paths that brought us together to share with good fellowship an environment of cooperative learning and yes, inspiration.

Because I had not been a student for many decades, I approached the initial courses with some trepidation. Would I be able to hold my own? I would ultimately discover that an abundance of life experience afforded me a broader context within which to incorporate new learning. In those first courses, however, I realized that my recall abilities had altered. Eager to dive in, I would read assignments the day after class and take copious notes, too. Six days later, when the professor would open class with a straightforward question about the assigned reading, I would draw a complete blank, flip frantically through my notes, and panic. My ability to retain information apparently was not what it once had been. So I adapted, finding that reading closer to the next session made a big difference. Though I wasn’t daunted by having to write papers, I spent the preparation time in a state of minor anxiety until I could do enough research (a process I cherished) to develop a “hook,” a way into the paper that worked for me. Thus, I came to accept that I do not learn in the same way or at the same rate as I did as a younger student. Nevertheless, learn I did, with delight!

I was often asked why I was, at this life stage, pursuing an advanced degree. I was puzzled when my “because I love to learn” response did not seem to satisfy. The flexibility of the MALS program allowed me a delicious deep dive into topics (film, history, aging, cancer, memoir, death/dying, philosophy) that had always drawn me but for which I’d had too little time to explore fully. As my chosen transition into retirement, MALS has bestowed a most enriching intellectual and personal experience.