Leading with Strength, Balance & Chocolate
Dr. Anne M. Kress keeps a bowl of miniature chocolate candy bars in the center of the comfortable, round 'talk table' in her inner office. A perch of sorts, her executive suite peers over the campus and goings-on of Monroe Community College, much like a ship's crow's nest would. This is a vantage point of power and influence. It's certainly 'The Captain's Quarters', but there's no pomp or protocol; this ship is on a steady and clear course. Outside the plate glass windows, the telltale signs that the first of many blizzards is bearing down on Rochester. Anne Kress, a newcomer to the phenomenon of Upstate winters, glances over her shoulder, alerted by the clamors of sudden howling wind and blinding flurries beating against the panes and exclaims, "My two children are going to be so excited to go sledding!" A fresh, first-timer excitement lingers in her expression for a moment. She then smiles and settles into her chair across the table, ready for what turns out to be a refreshing, if not uncommon combination of friendly banter, intimate perspectives and downright compelling discourse.
Dr. Kress sits aloft her perch as president of Monroe Community College with a strength and balance that she's been earning since childhood. Her humble beginnings gently eek out as she talks about growing up in a middle class family of 13 children. "My father was a blue collar guy who worked at Schlitz," she says. "When I was a teenager, my family moved from a small town near Milwaukee, Wisconsin to the Tampa, Florida area because of his job." Family, educators (like Miss Brick, an elementary teacher that Kress remembers by name to this day), along with a tight-knit Wisconsin-style, down-to-earth neighborhood environment solidified Kress's foundation as a young child and instilled a firm and lifelong value in good, old-fashioned hard work. "I saw how it worked," she says. "Every single day, people just plain did what they needed to do, and that commitment to hard work always got them where they needed to go," Kress recalls. "They always put food on the table." This statement suddenly makes the chocolates on her table seem significant, symbolic somehow.
Adaptive and malleable by nature, it didn't take Kress long to embrace her new surroundings in Florida. The commute to her Tampa-area high school took Kress past a University of Southern Florida campus every day. "I used to see it on my way and dream of someday going to college," she recalls. "It was a pretty big deal, because that would make me the first one in my family to attend college," she continues. Applying the 'work hard' techniques modeled by her parents, Kress excelled in high school, applied and was accepted at The University of Florida at Gainesville upon graduation from high school. "I loved it there, it was a dream come true," Kress says. In fact, she loved it so much that she earned not one, but all of her many degrees from the University of Florida, starting with a B.S in Finance in 1985. It wasn't all fun and games for this middle class student, and 'hard work' values drove her. "I worked at a Chik-Fil-A all through college," Kress laughs. In response to an inquiring squint, Kress expounds, "It's a popular Florida fast-food chain that serves chicken sandwiches you can pick up at a drivethrough window." (There's that 'food on the table' again…!) Kress went on to earn another B.A. at the University of Florida, this time in English in 1987, and added a masters degree in English 1989. She also had her first taste of teaching while working as an English grad student assistant there from 1988 to 1989. It's no surprise that in 2007, she returned to earn a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the same University.
With absolutely not one off-keel moment, Kress transferred her skills seamlessly from the University of Florida in Gainesville, to nearby Santa Fe Community College. This is where she would work her way up to the top of her first crow's nest. From 1989 until her recent move to Rochester, Kress made Santa Fe her ship. She began by teaching there as an adjunct and then an assistant in the English department. She held positions as associate professor and department chair through the 90's and moved closer to the top spot in 2000, when she was named as the Director of Title III Project at Santa Fe CC. This position turned her ship squarely into a prevailing wind of dedication to the challenges, needs and means for success at community colleges. The Title III Project focused on finding new ways to lead, address strengths and weaknesses, and find innovative solutions to implement creative, previously unexplored services to a community college population. During this time, Kress amassed an impressive list of accomplishments, including publishing journals and garnering generous funds for the program and college in the form of grants and awards. In 2005, she was named Associate Vice President of Information Management & Education Technologies at Santa Fe Community College and shortly thereafter, the college welcomed Kress to the post of Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. This position allowed Kress to oversee much of the day-to-day operations of the college in the president's absence. She also managed the college's $33 million dollar operating budget and a faculty of over 250 full-time faculty members spread across five campuses.
Kress first worked alongside MCC representatives in 2005 as Santa Fe Community College's representative to the League for Innovation in the Community College. MCC and Santa Fe held two of 19 spots on the League's board at that time, so they regularly met. This early working partnership with MCC illuminated a mutual commitment to improving community colleges through innovation, experimentation and institutional transformation. "We had many visions in common and it was clear that we shared values," Kress says of her first impression of MCC during that time.
After an exhaustive search, headed by the MCC Board of Trustees, Dr. Anne M. Kress was named the fifth president of MCC in April 2009. Board chair, Kenneth Goode, had this to say about the choice: "We asked the members of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee and the Faculty Senate's Special Committee on Administrative Affairs to help us identify extraordinary leaders to take Monroe Community College to the next level, and they delivered."He continued, "She is an exceptional educator and administrator who embraces technology, innovation and collaboration, and has a great deal of experience in workforce and economic development. She brings an in-depth understanding of how community colleges can meet the changing needs of their students and communities. The MCC family is delighted to welcome her as its president."
Upon being named president, Kress simply continued to do what she's always done; take the helm and plan on working hard everyday. "My priorities are many and although they might shift a bit and change according to the situation, I always have many," Kress says. "Right now, I'm paying close attention to enrollment growth and the need to keep up-to-speed on student needs; doing more with less," she continues. MCC's enrollment numbers are rising at an astounding rate, up from 18,000 to an all time high of over 19,000 in the past year alone. Kress attributes this increase to a changing economic climate where students of all ages and educational backgrounds are reaching out to the community colleges for many logical reasons. "Our population consists of people from age 15 to over 80 years old," she explains proudly. "We serve everyone from new high school graduates who are getting their first taste of higher education, to folks who have been in careers for decades looking to expand their education or get current in their fields. We are also seeing more and more people coming to MCC with the desire to learn new skills, re-invent themselves after having lost a job, and pursue lifelong dreams after retiring." Kress' dedication to this diverse student body is evident and she identifies them as the sole reward for all the work. "I get teary-eyed at every single graduation ceremony," she says with a smile. "There's an enormous sense of achievement, and it's for every student."
The weather has become increasingly nasty during our chat. As it rages outside her elevated lookout point, Kress turns once again to evaluate the conditions and it is obvious that she's ready - if not eager - to weather any storm that presents itself. It's all clear sailing at this helm. "I know I'm really going to like Rochester; especially the seasonal markers," she says calmly of the threatening storm. "I can't wait to take my kids out sledding later!" The chocolates remain centered, available, reassuring. There will always be food on this table.
You can enjoy the rest of the February Issue on our website
Friday, February 19th, 2010 | Rochester Woman Magazine
by Lindsay FerrinDr. Anne M. Kress keeps a bowl of miniature chocolate candy bars in the center of the comfortable, round 'talk table' in her inner office. A perch of sorts, her executive suite peers over the campus and goings-on of Monroe Community College, much like a ship's crow's nest would. This is a vantage point of power and influence. It's certainly 'The Captain's Quarters', but there's no pomp or protocol; this ship is on a steady and clear course. Outside the plate glass windows, the telltale signs that the first of many blizzards is bearing down on Rochester. Anne Kress, a newcomer to the phenomenon of Upstate winters, glances over her shoulder, alerted by the clamors of sudden howling wind and blinding flurries beating against the panes and exclaims, "My two children are going to be so excited to go sledding!" A fresh, first-timer excitement lingers in her expression for a moment. She then smiles and settles into her chair across the table, ready for what turns out to be a refreshing, if not uncommon combination of friendly banter, intimate perspectives and downright compelling discourse.
Dr. Kress sits aloft her perch as president of Monroe Community College with a strength and balance that she's been earning since childhood. Her humble beginnings gently eek out as she talks about growing up in a middle class family of 13 children. "My father was a blue collar guy who worked at Schlitz," she says. "When I was a teenager, my family moved from a small town near Milwaukee, Wisconsin to the Tampa, Florida area because of his job." Family, educators (like Miss Brick, an elementary teacher that Kress remembers by name to this day), along with a tight-knit Wisconsin-style, down-to-earth neighborhood environment solidified Kress's foundation as a young child and instilled a firm and lifelong value in good, old-fashioned hard work. "I saw how it worked," she says. "Every single day, people just plain did what they needed to do, and that commitment to hard work always got them where they needed to go," Kress recalls. "They always put food on the table." This statement suddenly makes the chocolates on her table seem significant, symbolic somehow.
Adaptive and malleable by nature, it didn't take Kress long to embrace her new surroundings in Florida. The commute to her Tampa-area high school took Kress past a University of Southern Florida campus every day. "I used to see it on my way and dream of someday going to college," she recalls. "It was a pretty big deal, because that would make me the first one in my family to attend college," she continues. Applying the 'work hard' techniques modeled by her parents, Kress excelled in high school, applied and was accepted at The University of Florida at Gainesville upon graduation from high school. "I loved it there, it was a dream come true," Kress says. In fact, she loved it so much that she earned not one, but all of her many degrees from the University of Florida, starting with a B.S in Finance in 1985. It wasn't all fun and games for this middle class student, and 'hard work' values drove her. "I worked at a Chik-Fil-A all through college," Kress laughs. In response to an inquiring squint, Kress expounds, "It's a popular Florida fast-food chain that serves chicken sandwiches you can pick up at a drivethrough window." (There's that 'food on the table' again…!) Kress went on to earn another B.A. at the University of Florida, this time in English in 1987, and added a masters degree in English 1989. She also had her first taste of teaching while working as an English grad student assistant there from 1988 to 1989. It's no surprise that in 2007, she returned to earn a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the same University.
With absolutely not one off-keel moment, Kress transferred her skills seamlessly from the University of Florida in Gainesville, to nearby Santa Fe Community College. This is where she would work her way up to the top of her first crow's nest. From 1989 until her recent move to Rochester, Kress made Santa Fe her ship. She began by teaching there as an adjunct and then an assistant in the English department. She held positions as associate professor and department chair through the 90's and moved closer to the top spot in 2000, when she was named as the Director of Title III Project at Santa Fe CC. This position turned her ship squarely into a prevailing wind of dedication to the challenges, needs and means for success at community colleges. The Title III Project focused on finding new ways to lead, address strengths and weaknesses, and find innovative solutions to implement creative, previously unexplored services to a community college population. During this time, Kress amassed an impressive list of accomplishments, including publishing journals and garnering generous funds for the program and college in the form of grants and awards. In 2005, she was named Associate Vice President of Information Management & Education Technologies at Santa Fe Community College and shortly thereafter, the college welcomed Kress to the post of Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. This position allowed Kress to oversee much of the day-to-day operations of the college in the president's absence. She also managed the college's $33 million dollar operating budget and a faculty of over 250 full-time faculty members spread across five campuses.
Kress first worked alongside MCC representatives in 2005 as Santa Fe Community College's representative to the League for Innovation in the Community College. MCC and Santa Fe held two of 19 spots on the League's board at that time, so they regularly met. This early working partnership with MCC illuminated a mutual commitment to improving community colleges through innovation, experimentation and institutional transformation. "We had many visions in common and it was clear that we shared values," Kress says of her first impression of MCC during that time.
After an exhaustive search, headed by the MCC Board of Trustees, Dr. Anne M. Kress was named the fifth president of MCC in April 2009. Board chair, Kenneth Goode, had this to say about the choice: "We asked the members of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee and the Faculty Senate's Special Committee on Administrative Affairs to help us identify extraordinary leaders to take Monroe Community College to the next level, and they delivered."He continued, "She is an exceptional educator and administrator who embraces technology, innovation and collaboration, and has a great deal of experience in workforce and economic development. She brings an in-depth understanding of how community colleges can meet the changing needs of their students and communities. The MCC family is delighted to welcome her as its president."
Upon being named president, Kress simply continued to do what she's always done; take the helm and plan on working hard everyday. "My priorities are many and although they might shift a bit and change according to the situation, I always have many," Kress says. "Right now, I'm paying close attention to enrollment growth and the need to keep up-to-speed on student needs; doing more with less," she continues. MCC's enrollment numbers are rising at an astounding rate, up from 18,000 to an all time high of over 19,000 in the past year alone. Kress attributes this increase to a changing economic climate where students of all ages and educational backgrounds are reaching out to the community colleges for many logical reasons. "Our population consists of people from age 15 to over 80 years old," she explains proudly. "We serve everyone from new high school graduates who are getting their first taste of higher education, to folks who have been in careers for decades looking to expand their education or get current in their fields. We are also seeing more and more people coming to MCC with the desire to learn new skills, re-invent themselves after having lost a job, and pursue lifelong dreams after retiring." Kress' dedication to this diverse student body is evident and she identifies them as the sole reward for all the work. "I get teary-eyed at every single graduation ceremony," she says with a smile. "There's an enormous sense of achievement, and it's for every student."
The weather has become increasingly nasty during our chat. As it rages outside her elevated lookout point, Kress turns once again to evaluate the conditions and it is obvious that she's ready - if not eager - to weather any storm that presents itself. It's all clear sailing at this helm. "I know I'm really going to like Rochester; especially the seasonal markers," she says calmly of the threatening storm. "I can't wait to take my kids out sledding later!" The chocolates remain centered, available, reassuring. There will always be food on this table.
You can enjoy the rest of the February Issue on our website
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