Get to know Dr. Eileen DeLuca
May 06, 2025
Dr. Eileen DeLuca kicked off the year in full swing as she shifted into her new role as vice president of strategic initiatives and chief of staff.
Read more to learn what she looks forward to for the rest of the year, three things faculty and staff can do to support student success and where she stands in a dance battle with Azul.
You joined the university in 2023. What has impressed you about FGCU?
Living in Southwest Florida for many years, I have been able to watch FGCU grow from the sidelines. I have been impressed since the university’s inception with how FGCU is responsive to and lives in concert with the surrounding community. The campus truly serves as a living laboratory for environmental sustainability in every detail down to the interpretive panels describing the environment, to the Food Forest and gardens, to the attention to the waterways and use of boardwalks, and even to the availability of e-scooters for travel. FGCU continues to respond to the ever-changing needs of the community through its sustainability course graduation requirement, which prepares all of our graduates to acquire competencies in sustainability across many disciplines. It is quite impressive that a university has been designed with sustainability in mind and has not strayed from this academic commitment. It is easy to see, how over time, FGCU has actually expanded this commitment with its investments in The Water School, the Dendritic Institute and the Shady Rest Institute on Positive Aging, among other programs that demonstrate how creating sustainable practices and programs requires thinkers across academic areas.
I have also long admired the university’s commitment to service learning, which is unique to FGCU and indicative to what we value: the marriage between serving our community and our academic goals. Even before joining FGCU full time, I had the opportunity to attend Eagle X and upon my first visit was absolutely stunned with the service projects and research presented by FGCU’s amazing students. It is clear that FGCU’s faculty and staff are guiding students to take on challenging projects that benefit our region and the globe. When students are mindful about their service and their research, and when they can connect it to their academic discipline, there is no stopping the level of passion, thought and creativity they will pour into their efforts.
Finally, in the co-curricular sphere, FGCU demonstrates the best of what a university has to offer through hosting an impressive array of lecture series, musical and theater performances, artistic exhibitions, student research expos and colloquia. If not in my office or in a meeting, you will likely find me at one of these events. I think the greatest benefit of working at FGCU is the daily opportunities to be inspired by faculty, staff and external guests. I encourage everyone here to make a commitment to find time in their calendar to attend events that speak to your passion. Don’t let the opportunity to expand your horizons slip away.
You’ve held many leadership roles throughout your career in education. What is the most unexpected lesson you learned as a leader?
When I was younger in my career, I thought being a leader meant you had to know more than the people you supported and had to be fully prepared to manage every situation swiftly and singularly. The COVID-19 pandemic did much to disabuse many higher education leaders from that illusion. At every level, higher education teams had to roll up their sleeves and solve one problem after another without precedence and with slowly emerging knowledge from other institutions. I have never seen such an esprit de corps among my colleagues as we all learned to navigate new technologies, and it was clearer than ever that we needed multiple voices involved to ensure academic continuity, safety and care.
I have come to learn that the most effective leaders can be humble and learn from their own supervisors, their colleagues, and from every member of the team they support. Good leaders can admit when they are wrong and course correct as needed. Most importantly, good leaders can forgive themselves and others when things do not go as planned. It is important to be continuously reflective about what is going well and what can be improved. Every day is a new day to reinvent ourselves and reinvent how we approach our work.
As acting vice president of Student Success & Enrollment Management, what are three things faculty and staff can do to support student success at FGCU?
Many folks have heard me say that the most well-attended event/service on campus is classes. Therefore, student success is largely determined by an institution’s ability to recruit, retain and support faculty. FGCU has a world-class faculty who have impressive backgrounds, research agendas, and by report of our students are outstanding educators. I am a huge advocate for investing in faculty professional development and providing the time and resources for faculty to travel to national and international conferences to share ideas both as related to their specific discipline and as related to teaching and learning.
Through participating in meetings with the gateway course coordinators, I have had the opportunity to listen to many faculty present their student success strategies. While some of the strategies are discipline-specific, there is a common theme in very simple ways that faculty move the needle: promoting class attendance and using data to show students how attendance correlates with success, giving formative feedback early and often in between high stakes assessments, and engaging in a personal check-in with struggling students to offer support.
What do you look forward to this year as you take on your new role as vice president of strategic initiatives and chief of staff?
I have a not-so-secret affinity for assessment, accountability and accreditation activities. Throughout my career as a faculty member, department chair and dean positions into upper administration, I have found myself drawn to strategic planning, unit planning, program and student learning assessment and developing valid and reliable assessment tools. In part, the vice president of strategic initiatives role will allow me to take my years of experience to support the president and cabinet in operationalizing the goals and objectives of our strategic plan. I have the opportunity to work with all the university divisions to create a seamless alignment from our mission, goals and objectives to our annual unit plans and our individual goals.
Also, as part of my role, I support the president and cabinet in identifying, supporting and assessing strategic partnerships. As a regional comprehensive institution, we would not be able to achieve all of our audacious goals without the many strategic partners we engage with. I feel like I have come to this position at the right time in my career. In my time in education, I have had the opportunity to work with many internal and external partners to set and reach audacious goals. With FGCU’s phenomenal history, current strategic plan and dedicated faculty, staff and students, our opportunities to innovate and expand our reach are endless. Being a part of such a team is, without a doubt, my dream job.
How do you spend your spare time?
If I were ever to have a day to myself, you would find me reading a book or visiting a museum. Either would likely have a social science focus. I also love watching live music. As a wife and mother, days alone are rare, so my favorite activities are traveling with my family (and guilting them to visit at least one museum with me) and relaxing on Florida’s beautiful beaches with my daughters.
It’s time for an office potluck. What do you bring?
I am famous for my baked macaroni — a recipe from my mother that I stole and improved. My famous version is quite unhealthy but delicious. I devised a recipe for a much healthier version, but I rarely make it that way!
Who is your favorite musician/band, and how does their music move you?
It would be difficult to name a single band or artist because listening to all kinds of music is my happy place. But I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all of the women, in addition to my amazing mother, who “raised” me. So here, I will give a nod to Stevie Nicks, who has always been like an older rock ‘n’ roll sister to me. There is not a single moment in my life encounters that Stevie Nicks did not predict (and prepare me for) through her lyrics.
If you had the opportunity to travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and what would you do?
The cultural anthropologist in me would love to visit all the countries over which the Fertile Crescent region spans. The extant evidence locates the oldest civilizations and the earliest record of recorded narratives in this area, especially within the northern corridor. I am fascinated by the narrative experience of humans and how we, as humans, (re)produce power through stories. I feel drawn to pass through places where we locate origin stories.
For leisure, my family loves to visit any and all new places and wish we had more time and resources to do so. My youngest daughter and I have a not-so-defined plan to visit all of the “new” Seven Wonders at some point. Wish us luck meeting our goal.
Who wins in a dance battle: you or Azul?
Me. No contest. You can even ask Azul.
