Mindy Saunders, Dean of Curriculum & Instruction (Celebrating Women in the Workplace)

Mindy Saunders

Mindy Saunders, Dean of Curriculum & Instruction

Celebrating Women in the Workplace at NPRC

March is Women’s History Month, when we celebrate the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. With this series, we intend to highlight some of Northern Pennsylvania Regional College’s (NPRC) women and their contributions to the College and higher education as a whole.

Mindy Saunders taught in the public school system for six years before accepting a position at a community college in southern West Virginia, thus beginning her journey in higher education. As a student balancing a job with a family and working towards her degree, Mindy took and continues to take pride in helping others pursue their own education and career goals. From there, it was only a matter of time until she found her way to NPRC.

“The birth of a new college is a rare event,” says Mindy.  “I enthusiastically pursued the opportunity to join NPRC’s team of professionals dedicated to providing quality post-secondary education and training to mostly rural students much like those I served in southern West Virginia.” She is proud of her role as what she described as “a system-level change agent in the area of…gateway math and English curriculum development while in West Virginia,” and as a leader committed to letting everyones’ voices be heard, she is now proud of her role at NPRC.

“Under my leadership as Dean of Curriculum and Instruction at NPRC, our implementation of game-changing initiatives provide students with relevant, just-in-time support for entry-level math and English courses, shortening time to and improving the affordability of a college degree,” she continues. The value of education is clearly not lost on her, as Mindy says it broadened her worldview and taught her the value of a multitude of perspectives and relationship-building in problem-solving. In fact, she’s come to view education as “the key to unlocking doors of opportunity.”

Mindy leaves us with this advice for all women aspiring to join the workforce: You can achieve almost anything you can dream of through hard work, persistence, and passion. The adage to ‘find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life has been a truth for me.

Mindy Saunders is only one of the inspiring women we are celebrating this month. Join us throughout March for other features Celebrating Women in the Workplace at NPRC and help us share these inspiring pieces to open a world of possibilities for our local young women!