Rachel Stalker, ‘Doah Staff Writer
September 4, 2013

‘Doah Photo courtesy of SU Student Life

This summer, Shenandoah saw a change in administration and welcomed Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Adrienne Bloss, Ph.D. Bloss started her new position on Jul. 1.

Bloss first came to Shenandoah when she was a fellow for the American Council on Education during the 2011-12 school year.

“I chose Shenandoah then because it was going through a dynamic period of growth and change and I wanted to learn from the strong leadership of Tracy Fitzsimmons and the other senior administrators.” Bloss stated that she fell in love with Shenandoah while she was here, which is why she applied for the vice president of academic affairs position.

Bloss believes that Shenandoah is a “vibrant and richly creative university.” She considers Shenandoah’s “focus on the integration of professional and liberal education is exactly what our students and our world need today — education that is both relevant and enduring.”

Her plan for Shenandoah is to focus on our mission statement by encouraging the faculty, staff and students to be “critical, reflective thinkers, lifelong learners and ethical, compassionate citizens.”

Bloss has previously worked at Roanoke College and Virginia Tech. At Virginia Tech, she held a faculty position in computer science.

She worked at V.T. for three years, but felt that her research opportunities were limited, so she moved on to Roanoke College, where she was the associate dean for academic affairs and institutional relations. It was there that she uncovered the liberal arts, which “changed my whole view of higher education.”

She is originally from the Rockville/Potomac area of Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. For her undergraduate studies, Bloss attended the University of Virginia, where she studied systems engineering.

“I was initially uncertain whether I wanted to major in theoretical physics or French; I decided on physics but after two years wanted something more applied and so transferred to the engineering school.” After attending the University of Virginia, she went on to Yale, where she earned her Ph.D. in computer science.