What are your other top destinations? If I have to pick a city other than Sydney
it would be London. I love England and the English countryside. I’ve also spent some time in Ireland enjoying the country and trying to figure out where some of my family roots have come from. I’ve traveled throughout Europe, to the
South Pacific, to South America, to Australia and New Zealand, and to the Caribbean. Italy would probably be another favorite destination along with the Scandinavian countries, which have an aura all their own. There are so many places that I love.
Is there anywhere you haven’t been that you’d like to visit? Yes, China. That one has been on my list
since I was in either middle school or freshman year of high school. I had an English literature teacher who went on an exchange program at the point when they were first starting to allow educators from the U.S. to go to China, and she came back to tell us about it. I have wanted to go to China for many years and just have not quite been able to work it out.
Do you have any pets? I did have dogs. I had a miniature
dachshund for 14 years, and my last one was a rescued greyhound. I would love to get a new one, but right now, with my lifestyle, I am not sure that is feasible. I am a big dog lover. In fact I’ve already told the Wellness Center that I know that Tivo is over there and I am definitely going to be coming to visit.
FROM CAMPUS TO THE PENTAGON
Can you talk about your role at the Department of Defense? The title of my role was personnel and
readiness, and my job was really about our people. And it wasn’t just uniformed military; it also included the hundreds of thousands of civilians supporting our troops along with a lot of work with military families to make deployments and transitions easier for them. For example, if a military spouse was a nurse in Illinois or a teacher in Washington, for instance, and then was moving to Arizona or Kentucky, how could we help that person transition successfully and navigate the licensure requirements and relocation challenges? Another part of the role was looking at
medical care. After the recent series of wars, we were faced with having to not only be at the forefront of research and innovation in
our treatment but also to figure out the best way to support our injured men and women so they could have rich, full lives. Our medical teams in the field got very adept at being able to save people from traumatic injuries, but once they came home, we had to figure out how to advance those treatments and create the best quality of life for those veterans along with supporting their families. This was also during a time when the military was downsizing, and we had to look at what was next for people in their transitions in terms of how to prepare them for jobs or link them with higher education opportunities. The readiness aspect of my job was about
whether our military have the tools—but more so the training and the support—to be able to do what our country needs them to do. The big question was always, “ready for what?” I believe when many people think military, they think war. What they do not realize is that the bulk of what our military does is humanitarian assistance. It is building infrastructure, supporting cultures, or coming in to help after a disaster. The challenge we faced was how do you ensure that they are ready to do whatever is required of them, whether they are serving in war zones or providing humanitarian aid? Again, my job covered some aspect of everything to do with the people.
It sounds like there are many similarities between the work you did there and the responsibilities you would have as a university president. Very much so. People often ask me, “How
did you get to the DoD?” I say it was some fortuitous meetings with several people that knew of my background in higher ed. Robert Gates was Secretary of Defense at the time, and most people do not recall that he had served as the president of Texas A&M University. I had been a university president and so had he, so he understood that role. When he and the President were looking to bring in leadership that understood organiza- tional change and how to run large, complex organizations, the connection to higher ed was apparent. Much of what I learned in an organization
as huge as DoD—how to connect with people and events globally—really makes the transi- tion to Loyola easier. I have had a leadership role in this large, complex, diverse, extensive worldwide organization. The 30,000 people in my division were located around the world, and I had direct budget responsibility for more than $73 billion and additional oversight for billions more.
SUMMER 2016 17
“Jo Ann Rooney brings profound and wonderful
expertise in academic, administrative, and relational skills to this challenging task of leading Loyola. She is a guide, a proven leader, and a generous soul. Jo Ann has given her life to educating individuals—whether university students or Department of Defense personnel— to be a leaven in our society for the good.
”
—JOHN P. FITZGIBBONS, S.J., PRESIDENT, REGIS UNIVERSITY
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