Ann Schmiesing, Vice Chancellor for Academic Resource Management for CU Boulder, joined the Lynx community in August as CU Denver’s interim chancellor. With nearly 30 years of experience in the University of Colorado system, Schmiesing brings a wealth of experience to the downtown Denver campus. In a Q&A, she touches on how her background has prepared her for her new role and shares her thoughts on disabilities, foreign language, fairy tales, and more.
You’re a familiar face to the University of Colorado community with a nearly 30-year career, most recently serving as the vice chancellor and executive vice provost for academic resource management at CU Boulder. How has your previous experience prepared you to be interim chancellor of CU Denver?
Serving as department chair, director of a first-year residential academic program, and Graduate School dean acquainted me with the needs of students from the moment they arrive on campus as undergraduates to the moment they collect their doctoral diploma, and [the] steps along the way. I’ve also learned about the unique needs of online and adult learners in my current role as vice chancellor for academic resource management. In recent years, I’ve co-led budgetary initiatives, partnered with infrastructure colleagues on research facility planning and related projects, overseen several faculty compensation efforts, and enjoyed interacting with donors and alumni. In these various roles and activities, I’ve routinely engaged with schools, colleges, and offices across the campus and collaborated with shared governance. In addition to drawing on this previous experience, as interim chancellor, I’m dedicated to learning as much as I can about CU Denver’s vital mission as one of the nation’s premier public urban research universities.
How would you describe your leadership style?
I’m a collaborative and learning-centered leader who believes that the best decisions are made only when a variety of voices are heard, options weighed, and potential impacts surfaced. I seek to cultivate leadership teams that work together with candor and common purpose and that earn the trust of faculty, staff, and students. I expect myself and others to always think of how the work of their program, office, or initiative aligns with the broader mission and values of the university. Foundational among these are our commitments to academic freedom; shared governance; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Addressing challenges and opportunities requires sincere and sustained efforts to exercise curiosity and open-mindedness, foster transparency, be data-informed but not data-constrained, and articulate the priorities and tradeoffs behind difficult decisions with honesty and authenticity. It also requires a willingness to iterate and reset: I’m loath to engage in change for the sake of change, but I believe strongly in always imagining how the experiences of students, staff, faculty, and our community as a whole could be made better and how we can work together to transform that vision into reality.
What are you looking forward to in this role?
I’m looking forward to being immersed in the vibrancy of a public urban research institution that is dedicated to advancing equitable and learning-centered practices. I’ve gotten to know some CU Denver faculty, staff, and leaders in various ways over the years and many more in my first couple weeks as interim chancellor, and I look forward to expanding on those relationships and forging new friendships.
What do you want to learn about CU Denver from our community during your time as Interim Chancellor?
I’m inspired by CU Denver’s commitment to making education work for all and the steps that Chancellor Marks and the entire CU Denver community have taken to date to realize that vision. There is so much for me to learn about the university’s commitment to being an equity-serving institution, a university for life, and an accelerator of research, innovation, and economic growth. I can’t wait to learn with and from you.
What do you want people to know about you?
One thing to know about me is that I am biologically deaf and have no natural hearing. Instead, my hearing is bionically generated by the cochlear implants that I’ve had for the last 15 years. I do very well with the implants, but please never hesitate to let me know if you think I’ve misheard you, and thanks for your patience if I ask you to repeat something.
My experience of progressive hearing loss and deafness has fueled my passion for raising awareness of disability and accessibility issues in higher education. In fact, one of my earliest interactions with CU Denver faculty was as a member of a CU System-wide disability studies group. Some of my published research pertains to representations of disability in literature, such as my book on disability in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.
At CU Denver, we talk a lot about how we can help students “meet their moment.” What does that mean to you?
Meeting your moment is about growth and transformation, about feeling that you belong and are valued, and about knowing that your journey at CU Denver will enable you to attain your career and life goals. You have it within you to succeed and we are here to support you.
To foster student success, faculty and staff need to be able to meet their moments, too, at every stage of their careers. It’s vital that faculty and staff feel valued, have meaningful professional development opportunities, and see themselves and their work as an impactful part of CU Denver’s mission.
Helping students meet their moment also means ensuring that CU Denver is equipped to meet the momentous shifts occurring in higher education. I’m excited and inspired by the 2030 Strategic Plan’s emphasis on making education work for all and redefining the public urban research university.
What’s your favorite part of the academic year?
I have two favorite parts: the beginning of the academic year when the campus comes alive again and the end of the academic year when we celebrate the achievements of graduating students. I thoroughly enjoyed attending CU Denver’s back-to-school Block Party for the first time, and I’m really looking forward to experiencing commencement in the Colorado Convention Center. In between, students, staff, and faculty all have a lot of hard work to do, but it’s important that we take care of ourselves and each other along the way and take joy in our individual and collective pursuits.
You’re also a professor of German and have a biography of the Brothers Grimm coming out this fall. How does that creative and academic work fuel/support your leadership roles?
I draw on my humanities background each and every day as a leader. The humanities convey durable skills—I prefer not to call them “soft skills”—that are essential to effective leadership and indeed to success in so many professions. My background in foreign languages and literature has sharpened my communication and problem-solving skills, as well as my appreciation of different cultures and viewpoints. And I actually regard my research on fairy tales and folklore as some of the best leadership training I’ve had. That’s because fairy tales so often imagine alternatives to the status quo and thus encourage us to consider what could be and how we might get there. Characters and communities are transformed in fairy tales in ways that might not have seemed remotely possible at the outset. In the Grimms’ tales, such transformations are at times effected by magic, but quite often they come about primarily because of a character’s creative use of existing tools, collaborative efforts with others, willingness to listen to the counsel of a helper-figure, and determination to at least try to achieve a goal despite being warned of immense challenges. Effective leadership is similarly transformative.
When you are not working, what do you enjoy doing?
When I’m not working, I’m probably writing about German literature and folklore, knitting a sweater, baking a loaf of sourdough bread, or watching soccer with my husband. I also enjoy daily walks with our dogs.
What led you to a career in academia and what keeps you inspired during your career?
In high school, I knew I wanted to do something involving foreign languages. At times I thought of going into international affairs, but my love of literature prevailed and I pursued a double major in English and German. I was fortunate to receive a faculty position at CU Boulder fresh out of graduate school and have been there ever since. It’s easy to stay motivated, because every day I see the tangible impacts that our teaching, research, and creative work exert on our students and on society as a whole.