Edna Baehre, MA ’73 & PhD ’77

German Beginings 

Her experience as a doctoral candidate in German language and literature at UB must surely have influenced Edna Baehre’s (MA, ’73; PhD, ’77) outlook.  There she discovered that, in contrast to her student days in her native Germany, she didn’t have to wait three weeks to meet with a professor--nor did she have to treat them like “sacred cows.”  Maybe her post-graduate tenure as a parts-department clerk with a PhD came into play as well.  In any event, Baehre’s obvious democratic leanings and love of learning have come full circle in her role as president of Harrisburg (Penn.) Area Community College, known popularly as HACC. 

Her route to a college presidency might seem more circuitous than most.  Three days after defending her dissertation, she was working as a clerk at Dresser Industries’ Parts Department in Olean, N.Y.  After leaving the company and giving birth to her daughter, Baehre began writing curriculum for a BOCES (Board of Cooperative Education Services) program, which “got me back in education,” and later served as executive director of the Olean Area Camp Fire Council. 

Domestic Traveler 

Her next move determined the later course of her career as she landed a job as assistant dean of continuing education at Jamestown (N.Y.) Community College.  Her next role was as dean of community education at Genesee Community College in New York, where the school’s president became her mentor.  The path to her current position solidified in 1988 when Baehre’s mentor sent her to a year-long leadership-development institute for female community-college administrators.  The program helped her determine that she wanted to be a community college president as well as how to strengthen some of the skills necessary to achieve her objective.  “I set myself a timetable of 10 years,” she says.  She subsequently took senior administrative positions at Highland Community College and Elgin Community College, both in Illinois.  Then, just eight years after setting her goal, she took on the role of president of HACC.

The highlights of Baehre’s time at HACC are significant.  The school has an operating budget of $123 million, has nearly doubled its enrollment--from 9,800 to around 19,000 degree students—and added two campuses.  As well, HACC today is renowned for offering the strongest and most expansive workforce training program in the state, training about 35,000 people a year.  HACC’s Foundation now is the eighth-largest of any U.S. community college with assets of $35 million.  Baehre also notes that HACC each year gives out some $1.5 million in scholarships.  In addition, she was recently named a recipient of the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award, recognizing her efforts to ensure opportunity, diversity and equality in education and leadership for the HACC community.  Previous recipients of that award include Nelson Mandela, Andrew Young and Coretta Scott King.

Down the bumpy road 

Her road hasn’t always been smooth.  Says Baehre, laughing, “On the first day I walked on campus as president, I thought, ‘What am I doing here?’”  In fact, she faced two major crises in her first few weeks, both related to the school’s computer system.  She also had to repair deteriorated relationships with the 22 school districts that underwrite the tuition of their residents to go to HACC, and deal with significant financial declines and losses.  Though a trial by fire, she discovered that doing the research and listening to the expertise of her staff was the key to helping work successfully through each of those issues.

She credits her staff as a key factor in those and similar successes: “I take satisfaction in spawning an idea and letting others implement it.”   Her obvious honesty and integrity surely play a vital role, as well.  “People,” she explains, “understand that I don’t manipulate or play games, and they have responded in kind.”
 
One of the things of which she’s most proud is what she calls the “transferability of any skill I ever acquired,” including research, teaching and language acquisition. Indeed, she ties the concept directly to her time at UB, noting the transferability of skills involved in her doctoral studies--conducting research, thinking through and applying concepts. 

“The educator and learner in me will never go away,” she says, noting that she likes to learn new skills or strengthen those she already has.  For instance, she’s currently learning French and leaves next year for a sabbatical to negotiate student exchange programs in foreign language and hospitality management in Morocco.  “Anyone should be proud to keep curiosity alive and learn from each experience,” she says.  “Keep your mind open and don’t ever think you’re going to stop learning.”

Written by Grace Lazzara
December 2007

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