Ed Kania, new vice president of business and finance and treasurer, joined Rollins’ staff in June 2018. In this Q&A session, he shared that he is very eager to become a part of and interact with the Rollins community. Kania talked about his educational and professional past, as well as how he hopes to apply himself to the Rollins community for its future.
Q: How did you choose Rollins?
Ed: I was aware of Rollins College since it is a member of the Associated Colleges of the South along with Davidson College, my previous employer. Two very good friends and mentors let me know that the position of Vice President for Business and Finance & Treasurer was available and encouraged me to apply since they believed my personality and experience would fit in well.
Q: What was your job before coming to Rollins?
I was the Vice President for Finance and Administration at Davidson College, a top ten liberal arts college in North Carolina.
Q: What about the campus appealed to you?
My initial attraction was that Rollins is an amazing school dedicated to the liberal arts and located in a wonderful community. Its mission to educate “students for global citizenship and responsible leadership, empowering graduates to pursue meaningful lives and productive careers” resonated strongly with my values.
As I learned more about Rollins, I became very inspired by the fact that Rollins has many diverse ways of achieving its mission, through its talented and passionate faculty and staff, including CLA [College of Liberal Arts] that offers a variety of innovative majors, including business majors, that are all deeply grounded in the liberal arts, the Holt School that welcomes students at all points of their lives, the Crummer School of Business that provides excellent business skills for current and future community leaders in Central Florida and beyond, and the Alfond Inn with its mission to turn profits into scholarships.
Q: What are you most looking forward to experiencing during your time at Rollins?
I have just started meeting students, faculty, and staff. I look forward to working side by side to achieve Rollins’ strategic goals, which are focused on student and alumni success. I recently was honored to participate in one of Dr. [Gloria] Cook’s [professor of music and piano] classes, “Successful Pathways Through Music,” and I hope to be able to meaningfully engage with our students and faculty.
I also will take time to participate in the community on and beyond the campus. I have already attended several faculty and student performances under the leadership of Dr. [John] Sinclair [chair, director, and John M. Tiedtke professor of music], and I am excited to participate in Vespers during December as the narrator.
Q: What do you like about Rollins and your position?
I love the people at Rollins. I am truly impressed by the brilliance I have witnessed already within the student body, faculty and staff. At the same time, I have been inspired by how genuinely kind, supportive, and welcoming members of the Rollins community are. My position is very wide-reaching, and I am driven by the chance to make a difference in a remarkable place that is continually striving to become more so.
Q: What do you hope to achieve at Rollins?
I hope to provide strong and supportive leadership to help the Rollins community members achieve their highest visions, individually and collectively. Included in this will be the completion of numerous construction projects.
Q: What is your alma mater and favorite college experience?
I attended St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Since I worked full-time while attending school, I did not get to participate in many student organizations. However, my love of the arts bloomed through my work in the Fine Arts Department with the faculty and visiting artists, and I did some shifts as a disc jockey to impose my diverse musical tastes on my fellow St. Joe’s Hawks.
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