Leveraging Leadership

From the Admissions Desk to Chief of Staff: 36 Years of Campus Stories

• Emily Sander • Season 1 • Episode 183

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Julie Barefoot shares her 36-year journey at Emory University, explains how she became Chief of Staff at the Goizueta Business School, and describes her daily work, including organizing a regional deans conference and coordinating keynote speakers like the CEO of Truist Bank. She talks about managing alumni events, working with faculty, and the importance of building relationships across the university. Julie also offers advice for those considering a Chief of Staff role in higher education.


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Who Am I?

If we haven’t yet before - Hi👋 I’m Emily, Chief of Staff turned Executive Leadership Coach. After a thrilling ride up the corporate ladder, I’m focusing on what I love - working with people to realize their professional and personal goals. Through my videos here on this channel, books, podcast guest spots, and newsletter, I share new ideas and practical and tactical tools to help you be more productive and build the career and life you want. 

 

Time Stamps:

00:41 Julie's Journey at Emory University
02:45 Understanding University Leadership
07:56 Role and Responsibilities of a Chief of Staff
12:56 Coordinating Distinguished Speaker Series
18:08 Navigating University Bureaucracy
19:19 Building and Maintaining Relationships
21:23 Engaging with Alumni and International Travel
23:32 Role of Chief of Staff
25:56 Advice for Aspiring University Staff
31:45 Reflections and Retirement Plans

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

My guest today is Julie Barefoot. And Julie, you're coming to us from Georgia, Yeah, from Atlanta, the Gosweta Business School at Emory University. Beautiful. Okay, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here. It's great to be here. So you've had an impressive

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

36

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

36 years at Emory University in various capacities. but you've had quite a journey there. Can you kind of tell us about that journey and how you transition into the chief of staff role? Sure. Um, so I've been, yes, I've been at, at Casueta since 1988, started out in an admissions role. And. I grew up in that role and, uh, when I left that role about five years ago, I was leading our, the admissions, recruitment admissions for our, all of our MBA programs. And so I did that for, you know, worked in admissions for 30 years. Then I led our school centennial celebration for about 2 years. And then in January of 2021, um, the interim Dean reached out to me because her chief of staff had gotten a really great opportunity at a university to be the chief of staff to the president. So obviously she took that job. And, uh, so they. Our energy needed a chief of staff and asked me if I would take on that role because I had, as you said, quite a bit of longevity at the school and, you know, in different roles as well. And so I, I thought about it, but I did actually have to ask what a chief of staff did because I wasn't really sure and particularly again at an academic institution. So, um, I got some Yeah. Details about those responsibilities to make sure that it was a good fit for me. And I thought it was. And so I said that I would serve for her and I did, uh, for about a year and a half. And then our permanent dean was hired who's my current boss, Gareth James. And then I became his chief of staff. And so that's how I've stayed in this role now for about three and a half years.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Wow. Yeah.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

And I'm like,

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

when you first got the role, you were like,

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

what the heck is

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

this

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

that? Right.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

signing up for? Very, very common for chiefs of staff.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

And then you kind of mentioned things just for people who aren't

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

who aren't

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

familiar. Can you just give a high level interview? Absolutely. Um, so the head of the university is the president. Um, and in our case, it's a gentleman, uh, Greg Fenves, President Fenves. And he reports to the board of trustees. Which is a group of people that are selected or asked to be on the board who, um, there's usually highly successful alumni business leaders can be major donors. All any of those, you know, those, those sort of elements, but certainly very accomplished people. And they, you know, sort of the final decision makers of quite a bit of sort of. Overall policy at the university. Um, the second highest position at the university, after the president, is the provost. Um, and he actually, in this case it's a man here, um, and he actually oversees the, All of the academic functions of the university. And so what sometimes people are surprised to hear is that the deans. So there's a dean. So the leader of each school is a dean of the dean of the business school of the law school, all these, you know, arts and sciences at like a school, like an Emory and that person actually reports to the provost, not to the president. So it's kind of that. I was surprised. And so at a major research university, like Emory. Okay. The individuals that are in these roles, the president, the provost, certainly the deans, they are very accomplished academicians before they went into an administrative role. They typically almost always have a Ph. D. from a prestigious university. They usually, well, they always gain tenure. In many cases, like my boss, has written, Um, a book, uh, a very well regarded, like the seminal book on business statistics is that's his area of expertise. So, um, and each unit of a, of a business, I mean, of the university, um, operates really on their own. Um, meaning that my boss has budget responsibility for, uh, the school, um, and they're responsible for, uh, the, you know, the revenue, but also, you know, control the expenses and things like that. Um, and what usually shocks people is how big an operation, for example, Emery is. So it is a big business, so to speak. So, our revenue with the business school is about a 115Million dollars. And Emory's budget, um, is about, for Emory University, is about 2. 8 billion. And then, of course, we are part of a major healthcare enterprise, Emory Healthcare. And that's about 6. 7 billion dollars. So, in total, the Emory Organization, which the president and the board of trustees must manage and, you know, and take care of, is about a 9. 5 billion operation. And you're saying billion with a B. B. Billion, not million. Billion with a B. Um, the other thing I think your listeners would like to know is who are sort of the two key types of employees at a university. Um, there are. And they have several different, uh, uh, levels, so to speak. There's tenured faculty, there's people on the tenure track, there's, in the practice of, there's adjunct. And, and it's really the tenured or tenure track faculty that sort of make a lot of the key decisions at a business school. Or at a school, excuse me. And the dean certainly has a lot of power and influence, but it's the faculty that sort of have to have that that must approve new programs that might be lodged or key policy decisions. So, and the deans of a school typically operate under a 5 year contract. So, and then every 5 years, they're evaluated in a confidential process. Where our faculty can provide confidential feedback to the provost about how the Dean is doing, and whether or not their contract should be renewed. So there's a, um, you know, it's very important. That in any kind of decisions that the faculty are consulted and that, you know, again, in many instances, there's going to be key votes. Um, the other obviously key constituent or key employee at schools and universities for staff, like myself, and we take on a variety of different, um, administrative roles, um, everything from, well, like a chief of staff role, but of course, admissions, uh, student services, uh, things like that. Very cool. That was, that was very enlightening for me.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

It's

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

It's super helpful. So thank you for that

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

overview and

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

framework. And then you kind of mentioned this, but can you say more about where the chief of staff fits into all of that and kind of

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

your

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

initiatives and what your workflow looks like? Absolutely. So, the chief of staff, I report to the dean. Um, and what's interesting is that compared to when I worked at admissions, where I had a lot of people reporting to me. I don't have anybody reporting to me in my role, um, which is fine with me. It's been a kind of a refreshing change, you know, it's always, change is good. Um, but I report to the dean and my job is to really follow up on his initiatives. What are the things, you know, to support him in whatever. I met with him this morning and my first question always is, what can I do for you? Um, he's got a big job, a lot of responsibility, and I see my role. As how can I make his life easy? How can I think about, you know, what I'm doing to, to, to support him? Um, and so the projects or what I'm asked to do can go from something that's very simple. Like, there's a student or donor or somebody that has a, uh, has a need and he wants me to draft a response for him. Um, usually these are what sometimes they can be complicated, you know, and so I've got to make sure that I, you know, to word. But, um, in any case, I will draft a response. I'll send it to him and he can wordsmith it. If he likes. Obviously, my goal is that he doesn't wordsmith it at all that. It's good to go. Um, or there can be more project based. I would say a lot of my time is spent on longer medium to long term projects right now. We are, um, Going to be hosting a group of about 3035 deans from Southeastern business schools next month. And so this is a initiative that Gareth envisioned back in the fall. And he came up something he thought would be good to get enabled deans from again from the Southeast region of the United States. Um, to get together and talk about common interest or common issues. Um, so they can learn from each other and, you know, frankly support each other. I mean, there could be opportunities for collaboration. I mean, you don't ever know what will come from those conversations. Um, and so my job was to You know, help schedule it, uh, you know, develop draft the invitations that we would send out, help manage those invitations come work with Gareth when developing an agenda. Um, so all of those. Uh, so that's that's a. That's a good example of one of the projects I'm working on And,

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

and

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

was this, is this the first of its time? kind? of. This particular, yes, this it's kind of the 1st of its kind. Certainly the 1st time we've done it. Gareth, when he was at USC Southern California, his. Uh, where he served as vice dean, they, um, he was involved in hosting a similar type of conference. And we actually hosted 1 for a national level for deans about a year and a half ago. And so it's, we've had some experience with this, but this is the 1st time we've hosted anything for just our, our region. Yeah,

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Yeah.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

so when you just kind of like offhand,

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

say,

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

I come up with the agenda, that's like a full blown, you know, 1st of a kind that are

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

location,

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

at least for this kind of get together. Yes, correct. And, and, you know, 1 of the things too, again, that that I help facilitate is, um, is the keynote speaker. So we're, Gareth is part of the, the, the conference. It's, it's basically about a day and a half conference. Um, we're going to be, uh, the, the CEO of Truist Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the U. S., but certainly in the Southeast, um, is going to be our keynote speaker. So Gareth will be interviewing him. And my job was to interview him. Again, make sure that he's available and, and let, and brief his team about what is going to be the content of the conversation, draft the questions, then send them to our communications team, making sure the questions are okay, I've sent them to Gareth, then when Gareth approves them, I'll work with the Truist team, because obviously we want to make sure that the, the CEO is, Properly prepared, you know, there's, you don't want to have a surprise with some question that he doesn't feel comfortable and answering, um, and, you know, and just really crafting the agenda and and specifically those questions that would be relevant to the audience. So, in this case, the audience is other days, right? So, obviously, if they were speaking to students or alarms, then the questions would be different. So that's part of my job, too, is to think through that and make sure that the questions. That Gareth is going to ask, match the audience, um, for, you know, for the best benefit. And you mentioned keynotes and I know you have some pretty prestigious alumni. Can you mention some of the other ones that you have and

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

how

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

have they given back to the, to the school.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Oh,

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

Yeah, absolutely. So another aspect of my job as Chief of Staff is to coordinate our distinguished speaker series. So we typically have anywhere from two to three keynotes. Uh, keynote speakers in an academic year, and as an example, uh, this past, uh, past academic year, we had the CEO of Lowe's, Marvin Ellison, who's an alum, as well as the CEO of Yahoo, Jim Lanzone, who's also an alum.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

to Emory.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

Yep, yep. He's an alum. Both of them are alums at Emory. And of course, I remember them quite well when they were students. Um,

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Did you admit them

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

yeah, absolutely. I'm pretty good. In fact, I,

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

They let you in this school.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

yeah, in fact, I interviewed Jim Lanzone. I remember it distinctly because he was at the law school and he was thinking of getting a business degree as well. And I thought, oh, I thought he'd be great. So, yeah, I feel pretty good about that. Um, but, and then last week we had Allison Dukes, who's the CFO of Invesco, uh, which is a billion dollar financial services institution. So, again, my job there, it's that is project based, meaning it's everything from, you know, getting the date scheduled, making sure again, that situation is different because the audience is really our students. We're trying to give a, the A really meaningful opportunity for our students to hear from business leaders and hear about their, the decisions they have to make and how they think about the future of their organizations, their leadership style and hearing about their career journey. And it's so wonderful, because they share with our students, you know, oh, this is what, you know, if I had, if I could go back to my 22 year old self, this is what I would say. Um, so. My job is to, um, you know, from start to finish is to make sure that that event goes smoothly. Um, and I work closely with my colleagues in the offices to make sure that the time and the date for the event. Is best for our students to encourage their attendance. So that's just another example of, um, you know, 1 of my responsibilities. So you're the conductor for all the behind the scenes. You're kind of quarterbacking that whole process, which You mentioned in one of our previous conversations, even like the security for some of these individuals has to be coordinated. Oh, yes, yeah, and they go through walkthrough. So, and, you know, for example, before Allison Dukes came on campus, the Invesco security individual, he wanted to meet with me and we literally did a walk through with the building again. Everything is fine, but I also have to work with the Emory. Security everything went smoothly. Thank goodness. Everything is fine, but it's just

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Julie.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

yeah. Yeah. It's just, you know. It actually is one thing that makes the job really fun for me because every day is different and, you know, if you'd asked me 2 years ago or 3 years ago, oh, would you be meeting the security people of Lowe's? And I'd be like, what? No. Um, but it's, it's a lot of fun. Um, and it, uh, makes every, every day is, is new and different.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

That's awesome.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

And you mentioned some of the other different aspects of the university Is there other

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

with. How, is there, are there other

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

universities that have sat at the dean level?

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

How

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

you reach out? to them?

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

do

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

do you still have connections at admissions?

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

How does that whole ecosystem work?

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

Yeah, so I, I end up regularly, I mean, meeting or, or conversing with people in, both here in the business school, in so many different areas. I'll give another perfect example from yesterday. Um, the, um, one of the deans, or the dean of the university, Seoul, Seoul National University, which is a premier university in Seoul, Korea, wants to come and visit, wants to visit our campus. We've had a long standing partnership with them, exchange programs with students, and so they want to come in May, so they reached out to my boss and said, oh, could we come and visit? Could the dean and his chief of staff come and visit? In May, so of course said, of course, we'd love to have you visit. Well, my job is to work with our, um, the individuals here that work with international students, but also with our international partnerships and coordinate that visit and I will also. You know, let the folks at I call it big, the main University know that this, you know, that this Dean is coming. It could be that there's someone else within the larger University that might want to meet with this individual. So. Certainly, we'll, we'll be mindful of that, but I regularly, you know, I regularly work with individuals in the legal office. You know, in some unusual ways, you know, I find out, for example, I had to help a couple of months ago. We were, um, a colleague was coordinating a 9, 11 walk through, uh. The stadium here at Atlanta. Well, it turns out that the stadium, which I understand wanted an insurance certificate before they would allow our students and alumni to participate in this. And so. I had to somebody reached out to me. He was like, Julie, how do I? I don't know. What is the university insurance certificate? I was like, oh, I know we'll call the legal office. They'll get it for us. And sure enough. They did. So it's funny. There's just an amazing array of. Connections or contacts that I need to have at the university level in order to facilitate the work of individual offices, whether it's admissions, or whether it's our international programs office, in this case, it was our veterans program that was sponsoring this event. So I, my job, I see it as to help facilitate their success, what I can do to support them, um, which of course is what Gareth wants me to do. yes. That makes, that makes a lot of sense. And I'm sure you have So many connections just by virtue of you being there for such a long time. But I'm wondering if you you make a proactive effort to go, I don't know, to different seminars or different meetings that are open to different people just to further build those connections and make new relationships. Yeah, I mean, this, I believe that success, and this is true with life in general, but certainly in a university. Building relationships, maintaining those relationships is key and also being interested in what other people are doing. So, you know, you, I can't go to all the events that we have, but I try to learn about them, but many, I do try to attend. Um, we, you know, again, about 2 weeks ago, we had a guest on campus that Gareth, an individual, he's president of a division of the American Express company, and he was a guest speaker in class. Again, I had helped coordinate and facilitate that visit and, um, or the engagement with, with the students in a class. And so I felt it was important that I attend the class so that I know how it went. And then I could also, um, steward that relationship after the fact. So I did. It was absolutely fascinating. I learned a lot about American Express, um, a little stuff about the credit card industry that I didn't know. And it was, it was in a strategy class. And so I think, you know, being curious, wanting to know what your colleagues do, wanting to know about faculty research, all of these things. Are helpful to you in a chief of staff role. I think being a lifelong learner is a

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

like just

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

life skill, right, in any profession, but certainly it lends itself well if you're working at a university, but you have opportunities like that, which

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

is,

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

is amazing, which is so fantastic. Um, I wondered,

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

you've

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

you've been at Emory for 36 years, and you've mentioned some of the illustrious alumni that you knew way back when when they were little, kiddos

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

kiddos

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

trying to figure out How What

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

What

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

just anecdotes or stories or favorite parts of being at the university have you, have you found like state you stayed there for a long time, so you get something out of that. Oh, for sure. I could talk about this all day. Um, I mean, it's just been a real privilege to work here. Um, when I started. You know, so many years ago, decades working in missions. I never ever could have imagined the people I've met. I wouldn't I just didn't know. I didn't know that I'd be able to travel internationally. So I've had the privilege of because of memory and recruiting responsibilities. You know, we recruit worldwide for our MBA program. So I've been to China many times. I've been to Korea, Japan. I've been to Turkey. I've been to, you know, you know, England and, and, and, you know, and, and, and France. I mean, many, many countries and actually many countries in Latin America. Um, and it's just been amazing. You know, you learn so much about, um, other cultures and people. And of course, I've also been able to stay in touch with our alumni. So, for example, um, I would go every year to Japan and Korea, because we have a strong alumni base there, and I would recruit students, but also host alumni dinners. Um, that was great. Um, the other thing that has been really meaningful to me is, um, Is staying in touch with the lungs both. I mean, our students that I would have interviewed and then seeing them progress in the program. I would see them do presentations. You know, it's the beginning of their academic experience. And then at the end, and I would literally see. How their confidence, you know, their skill set had, you know, been transformed. They really blossomed. Exactly. Um, so that's really meaningful. And then through LinkedIn and some other, you know, opportunity, I get to see what they're doing, um, and see them, you know, the promotions they get and the jobs that they take. It's super fun for me to see them thrive and to see them realize their career goals that they may have shared with me in their interview. So that's just a favorite part of the job. Oh my gosh, my heart like warmed up as we could speak about that. That's so

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

that's so

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

amazing. How

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

How do

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

do you Interact with other staff, whether at Emory or different universities. You know, you first got into this role and they're like, what the heck is the chief of staff

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

in

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

education? have you, clearly are doing a good job at your role now.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Was

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

that a process? that you try to learn from others or was that just trial by fire?

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Let me

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

try this. And then let me try that. Um, you know, it's a great question. I have to say that, um, I did talk to the USC chief of staff, um, where my boss where Gareth had been before. Um, but what I learned is that. Yeah. What and she was just terrific, by the way, very open, but what I learned is that the way they have structured their, those responsible for what she was doing was really quite different from what I was doing. And I think part of it is because. I've been here so long. I sort of take on some other unique things. Well, I think there's 2 reasons. Number 1 is I've been here so long. I end up doing things that a lot of chief of staff don't do at other university. For example, you know, because I know so many of our alumni, I. I give advice to faculty or our alumni team about speakers and people that could serve on conference, you know, be keynote speakers at our conferences and I will reach out to them and sort of facilitate that. But I only I could do that because I actually knew them, you know, I've known them for 20 or 30 years. The other reason is, and this is really a compliment to both of my bosses, our deans, is that Gareth and his predecessor, Karen, were very self sufficient. So a lot of deans, I mean, excuse me, a lot of chiefs of staff are putting together PowerPoint presentations and drafting things like speeches and certainly Gareth. I mean, given he's a statistician by training. I mean, he is. Wicked smart with technology. Now, he does not need my help to do any of that. So, I, I think that's why my role is a little different than maybe some other chief of staffs. Um, so I tend to be more, a little more outward facing, maybe a little more engagement with alumni a little bit more. Um, facilitating things with, with colleagues because they know me and they'll ask me for their help on different things. And I, I, I help out And as you approach your well deserved retirement, what would you say to someone who's looking

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

looking

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

to getting a job?

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Into

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

a university set will be coming

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

chief of

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

to staff there. What

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

advice or,

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

you know, I made this mistake Please don't do that. Learn from the type of advice with you.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

would you give?

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

Well, I would say that there are 2 things they need to be aware of and I tell this by the way to any. New staff or that comes into the business school, I'm often asked to coach people about how to be successful. Um, and and that flat, you know, it's very flattering for me. Um, but I, I think, you know, I, uh, the number 1 thing they need to know is that faculty. Are the decision makers at a university, so staff and I, you know, I'm very proud that I have an associate Dean title, but the bottom line is, I'm not a faculty member. I will never be a faculty member and that's okay with me. I'm very happy being, you know, chief of staff. So, she did, but I think that sometimes, um, staff think that. Well, that they are going to run the university or run the business school, and we support and facilitate the work of faculty. And that's that. That's what that that's what our role is. Um, I, as I said, I, I'm fine with that. I am happy to, to support their work to elevate their work and certainly obviously of the days, but I'm. I think so that that's a that sometimes has been actually a little bit of a friction because we do recruit staff members that come, you know, they've been partners at top tier consulting firms.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Okay

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

Okay that's happened more than once and some of them are able to make the transition and some of them are not because they, they don't, they can't fully appreciate what that means. Um, that the faculty really run the business school or or the key decision makers. Um, and then the 2nd thing, um, I would say is that it's very important, uh, that you realize that. Compared to a comparable level, maybe the company, you don't have as much administrative support. So, as I like to tell people, I'm both a strategic thinker and executor of projects, but I'm also a worker, a worker be so, you know, I'm totally fine with, you know, helping set up move tables around. If we're having an event and that help needs to be done. So, you kind of got to do whatever it takes to get a job done because we are at a university. And so, you know, I want to be a good steward of our resources and things like that. Um, and I guess 1 other point I would make, um, and we, we talked about it earlier, but it's the important of maintaining good relationships. Um, you know, you. It, it's just you don't ever know who is, who can help you out. And it, and the other thing, again, when you are also at a, at a, a high level as a staff, senior staff person level, um, your, your boss is actually going to be a tenured faculty member. And that role is going to rotate. So in my whole career, every basically three to four years, I typically have a new boss. And they're faculty member, and they off and I have to both obviously report to them, but I also have to educate them. In my case, it was about admissions and sometimes they don't know what they don't know. And that 1st year, they always want to try these new things. And some of them were great. Some of them. I'm not so sure about, but my job is it's a learning experience and my job is to do my best to communicate, you know, what, again, what my responsibilities were in terms of recruitment and what we're trying to do, but also to educate. Because in 2 more years, I'm going to have a different boss, but that boss that I've had is going to go back into the faculty and they were typically always my best advocate because then they understood the role of what I, what we were doing both opportunities, the challenges, you know, ways we were successful things that we could improve on. You've got to have that mindset that your boss is a faculty member. They're not going to be in that job forever. You want to educate them. You want to learn from them because they do have some really good ideas. And then remember that you're going to get a new boss in about another two years. You got to be flexible. Yeah. And you've been through a whole bunch of these rotations through your time. So yeah,

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

used to how that, how that goes. Yeah.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

funny. I, was

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

we're

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

just rewatching

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

the

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

TV show, the crown

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

about,

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

uh, when she was younger. And, uh, you have like this roping door of prime minister where like, she stays the same time over time, I think over decades, but, at least, I mean, People come in on a high, like a wave of popularity, and then sometimes they just tank down. So their whole rollercoaster, but she stays the same all throughout. So when you were describing that, I was getting like glimpses of, uh, of the administrative meeting

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Queen.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

Wow. Well, I, I, uh, I'm honored by the analogy, but, uh, but yeah, you know, it's, you know, it's all part of the career journey. Um, and I've, I've learned, you know, I've learned so much. Um, I really have. It's been a, it's been a wonderful, wonderful 30, it'll be 37 years next month.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Wow. Congratulations.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

are your, what are you

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

going to do in retirement?

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

Oh, you know, um, well, my, my family is, I have family nearby as well as up in New York. And so my goal is to spend more time with my, I have a grandson and he's 22 months and he's the love of my life. So, so excited about that. And then, you know, our son and his wife live up in New York. So I want to be able to, I've been up there frequently, but I want to be. More flexible to do that. And, uh, you know, I'm just looking forward to the next chapter and exploring things. I want to learn to knit. So that's another thing on my on my list. And I do love to travel. So I hope to do some more of that.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Wow.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

I love your energy and I'm just making a few conversations I fully imagine

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Um, I I can only imagine you as

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

the administration person when someone's first, you know, bright eyed and bushy going to university, a new experience, and then. Being seeing the alumni that you visited. So,

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

um,

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

thank you for what you've done and

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

you for

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

a role model for me on how to move into different facets of your career and be excited about different

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

things and,

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

and learn. But, um, Thank you so much for for being on and having this.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

this conversation.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

Well, it's been a delight, Emily. I, I, I, it gave me a wonderful opportunity to reflect something, you know, when you're busy, you sometimes don't do. And, um, like I said, it brings back, you know, working here and getting to know our alums and staying in touch with them has been, um, just the sweetest part of the job. Yeah.

emily-sander_1_02-14-2025_083341:

Beautiful.

julie-barefoot_1_02-14-2025_113340:

thank you again, Julie Yeah, take care, Emily. Bye bye.