printable versionNew executive director for Haas Center announced, expected to start in April
Thomas Schnaubelt
The Haas Center for Public Service has announced that Thomas Schnaubelt, dean for community engagement and civic learning at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, will be the center's new executive director, starting in April 2009.
Jackie Schmidt-Posner has been the center's interim executive director since the summer of 2007, when alumna Nicole Taylor stepped down after a serving for a year and a half as managing director at Haas. The center selected Schnaubelt after a rigorous national search, citing his 13 years of higher education and leadership experience.
In his current position at the Parkside campus, Schnaubelt developed two community-based centers for environmental education and research, as well as a community-wide mentoring campaign. He also provides overall financial and human resource management for a third center at UW-Parkside that focuses on outreach and engagement.
In addition, Schnaubelt spent two years as the first executive director of the Wisconsin Campus Compact, where he provided leadership for a coalition of 34 college and university presidents and chancellors committed to the civic purposes of higher education. He has played a consulting role with institutions across the country and worked in Michigan and Mississippi as well.
At the University of Southern Mississippi, Schnaubelt established and developed the Mississippi Center for Community and Civic Engagement, which is designed to foster and support educational partnerships statewide between community-based organizations and K-12 and postsecondary institutions.
As an educator, Schnaubelt developed and taught service-learning courses at UW-Parkside, conducted online seminars for AmeriCorps and served on the faculty of the College of Education at the University of Southern Mississippi. Among his numerous honors, Schnaubelt has received a Higher Education Award for Leadership in National Service and a Carnegie Foundation Community Engagement Classification.
"Tom's work has created bridges between the academy and the community that have enhanced the ability of students and faculty to work effectively with local agencies and to build enduring respectful partnerships," said Gabriel Garcia, a professor in the School of Medicine and the Haas Center's faculty director. "He will be an extraordinary asset not only to Stanford but to our greater community."
Schnaubelt received a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Mississippi and a master's degree in education from the University of Michigan. He earned his undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
After Schnaubelt's arrival, Schmidt-Posner will stay on though June at the Haas Center as its senior associate director, to facilitate the leadership transition and work on special projects.
