New hire Samuel J. “Jack” Connell ’83 has begun his tenure at Houghton College as the Dean of the College and Vice President of Academic Affairs, continuing “the good work done by Professor Linda Mills Woolsey as she returns to the classroom,” President Mullen stated in a Houghton College press release.
Mullen noted Connell’s broad range of skills which, in the changing educational landscape of the twenty-first century, gives him “the ability to link academic programs strategically to admissions.” Connell’s vitae is illustrative of his broad and extensive skills and experience in various fields. According to his resumé, he graduated from Houghton College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, with minors in Bible and Philosophy. He then went on to Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, earning a Master of Divinity, and then later a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Leadership and Biblical Preaching in 1997. Recently he completed a doctoral program at the University of Rochester and became a Doctor of Education in Higher Education Leadership.
While completing his graduate studies, Connell served as both an assistant and a senior pastor at three different Wesleyan Churches, including Houghton Wesleyan Church, from 1987-1989. Since 2006, Connell has held associate dean, professorial, and vice presidential positions at Asbury Theological Seminary, and Houghton College. For the last eight years Connell has held positions at Roberts Wesleyan College and Northeastern Seminary as both executive vice president and chief operating officer.
“[Connell] is the dean for this particular juncture in Houghton College’s history,” Mullen stressed. Mullen went on to state that the academic environment of the postmodern world demands Christian education to be affordable and accessible. The accessibility of college education is now broader than traditional, residential programs-including all-online two and four year degrees. Thus, academic deans in this particular time must be equipped to reach non-traditional students through online or cross cultural programs, as well as integrate the academic mission of Houghton into the campus community at large, beyond working with area deans. Even just several years ago, this was not the job description of an academic dean, but “we are in a new moment,” Mullen said. “[Connell’s] wide range of professional training allows him to ground Houghton College in the higher education landscape of this time.”
Even without Connell’s resumé to confirm this, his broad areas of education and training are evidenced through his long list of publications. Connell has written for journals, books, and magazines with titles ranging from “The Power of the Ask: 7 Fundraising Principles for Pastors” to “Human Nature as God Intended: A Creational Anthropology.”
“The kind of education Houghton provides is needed now more than ever,” Connell stated in a Houghton press release. Connell has strong connections to the Houghton community, his grandfather was once the Chair of the Board of Trustees, and his uncle formerly served as the Academic Dean. “Members of my family have been impacted by Houghton for four generations now, and so this return to my alma mater is a source of great personal joy and much gratitude to God,” he said.
As previously reported by the Houghton Star, previous Dean of the College, Linda Mills-Woolsey, will continue her teaching career in the English and Writing department, while also making time to finish a manuscript of poetry. “Linda has been a done a great deal to lay a foundation for Dr. Connell’s success,” Mullen said, noting Mills-Woolsey’s efforts in broadening Houghton’s vision in online and off-campus education. That, combined with the college’s overall readiness to take hold of comprehensive market opportunities, will allow Connell and Houghton to succeed in the “missional setting” of higher education, said Mullen.