GREENFIELD — Brian P. Kapitulik is Greenfield Community College’s new dean of business, information technology, professional studies and social sciences.
According to Catherine Seaver, chief academic affairs officer, “After a thorough search, we were excited to offer the position of dean to Brian. Brian brings extensive experience as a faculty member then department chair to the role of dean. He hit the ground running and quickly established himself as the leader of the Business, Information Technology, Professional Studies and Social Sciences division.”
Kapitulik started in late April.
He has 18 years of professional experience in the Massachusetts public higher education system and in particular, during the last decade, in community colleges. He has been acting interim dean of the department since Kathy Vranos’s departure in January. Before that he was the chair of the Department of Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at GCC. He has also taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Quinsigamond Community College.
During this time he has evaluated and developed curriculum, assessed and reviewed programs, created new courses, hired and mentored new faculty, all while teaching students, publishing papers, organizing professional development workshops in his field and serving the college in a number of leadership capacities ranging from search committees to serving as faculty mentor for Online Pedagogy.
Kapitulik describes himself as a mindful and deliberate decision maker, according to a statement from college, which also said “His colleagues have said that he models open and direct communication while supporting a culture of respect and collegiality. He emphasizes that as a sociologist, he is inclined to look at the ‘big picture’ in social situations and he recognizes the importance of using data to draw conclusions and inform decisions, such as departmental priorities or hiring new faculty. He strives to balance his use of quantitative information with his more intuitive decision-making process.
Like some of his academic and administrative peers at GCC, Kapitulik started his academic career at a community college. After a somewhat, in his own words, “lackluster” high school experience, he found community college to be transformative and energizing and went on to receive his Ph.D. from UMass in sociology. He describes sociology as “the coolest discipline that always made sense to me because it’s …about making connections and thinking about things in context — what we do over here is related to what happens over there.”
Kapitulik sees his new position as serving the college’s mission of helping students and families realize their academic goals and using GCC as an opportunity to explore and then launch into careers that they had perhaps not considered. He feels uniquely qualified to serve both GCC students and faculty because he has “walked in their shoes.”