Houston Comm. College Dean Colleen Reilly Joins NOVA as Spring 2023 ACE Fellow
Colleen Reilly, dean of the center of excellence for visual media and performing arts at Houston. Community College has joined NOVA as a 2022-2023 ACE fellow.
This prestigious, faculty fellowship program, sponsored by the American Council on Education, or ACE, provides recipients with on-the-job experience and skills development to hone their leadership abilities and to prepare them for executive level, college leadership.
In her role at Houston Community College, Reilly leads workforce and academic system-wide programs in art, audio recording technology, dance, drama, filmmaking, music and music business.
Reilly describes herself as very purpose driven and says her own college experience was transformational for her, placing teaching and learning at the center of her life-long career goals. She says her experience teaching in the college classroom brought her great joy; and in transitioning to administration, she has found inspiration in collaborating with faculty and staff to nurture a student-centered culture.
Prior to HCC, she served as a member of the drama faculty at Slippery Rock University (Penn.), where she directed the community-based Kaleidoscope Arts Festival and earned tenure as an assistant professor in theatre. She developed the Arts Administration curriculum for SRU and supported the tour of two student productions to Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Reilly received her PhD in Theatre Arts from the University of Pittsburgh where she also earned an MLIS with a focus in Archival Studies. Her work as an archivist includes processing the Rachel Carson Collection at the Jennie King Mellon Library at Chatham College and a number of drama library special collections for the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library at Yale University. She is a former member of the Executive Board of the Theatre Library Association and a founding member of the American Theatre Archive Project.
The ACE fellowship brings not only first-hand experience to those aspiring to college leadership, it also brings exposure to diverse thoughts and ideas. “I value the experience of another institutional culture, and how it can help me become more aware of my assumptions about this moment in higher education,” she said. “In my first week, I participated in deep discussions about diversity, equity and inclusions; academic and strategic planning and higher ed. legislation. NOVA and Houston Community College have many things in common, as well as stark differences. I am excited to learn here.”
What does she hope to achieve from her time as an ACE Fellow? “My focus right now is on building capacity in my current role at HCC. The ACE fellowship creates community around higher education leaders, and I can see those relationships driving my future career choices.”
Being matched with an institution for the ACE fellowship involves essentially an interview process. Reilly says that NOVA was high on her list, but in her first moments of conversation with President Kress, she knew this was the place for her. And every subsequent interaction with NOVA leadership has confirmed that choice.
Having never visited the D.C./Northern Virginia area before, she says her favorite thing about the area is NOVA.
“Much like HCC, NOVA’s diverse campus locations, tell powerful stories about their local communities. I am excited to learn more about them.”
She says she is living the “Airbnb life” this spring in the hopes of having different experiences in the area. “I based my first location entirely on my commute up Little River Turnpike, but she will move on in February to experience another part of the region.
“Home is anywhere that I am with my husband, Paul, and our two cats, Tallulah and Rufus. We met in Pittsburgh, but I had moved there from Charleston, S.C., which I consider my hometown.”
She says she appreciates NOVA welcoming her, and she hopes to give back during her time here.
Click here for more on the ACE Fellows Program.
Submitted by:
Kathy Thompson, Assoc. Director of Internal Comms., KAThompson@nvcc.edu