Finalist Mahony aims to be Winthrop's 'chief happiness officer'

Some of Dan Mahony’s Kent State University colleagues call him their workplace’s “chief happiness officer” – a title he hopes to take with him to Winthrop University if he’s hired as the school’s 11th president.

Mahony, one of three finalists in the running to be Winthrop’s president, is the second to visit the campus this week, having arrived Wednesday.

The school’s trustees plan to hire one of the men – all currently working as academic deans at other public universities – to take office by July. They made the cut from a larger applicant pool officials said included a past college president, a sitting university president and a CEO.

Mahony not only touts high job performance marks given by his superiors and those who work for him at Kent State, he also has conducted academic research on what boosts university employees’ sense of workplace satisfaction and trust – two contributing factors to worker retention and overall morale.

His leadership style – informed by the research on what keeps campus employees happy – includes making decisions alongside stakeholders, not in a top-down approach, Mahony told The Herald.

At Winthrop, he said, he’d be a collaborative leader – still willing to make tough decisions that go against what some people want, if it’s a decision that best serves the university. But, he said, he prioritizes explaining to campus constituents the reasons behind his actions.

Winthrop has many similarities to the two schools where he has spent the bulk of his 21 years working in higher education, Mahony said. He started as a sport management professor, was later promoted to department chairman, and served as associate provost at the University of Louisville, where he spent 13 years.

Since 2008, he has been dean of Kent State’s college of education, health and human services.

At Kent State, Mahony is the longest-serving dean on campus. He oversees 57 degree programs for nearly 5,400 students, served by nearly 600 employees – a college within the larger university that is nearly the size of Winthrop’s entire undergraduate program. Kent State’s total student enrollment is nearly five times larger than Winthrop’s.

Both Kent State and Winthrop serve a high percentage of first-generation students who come from varied economic backgrounds, Mahony said. Keeping that focus on attracting a diverse student body and offering a vibrant college experience to students regardless of family income, he said, is important.

Earning a college degree is a “transformational experience” for students, Mahony said, especially those who are the first in their family to pursue higher education.

Running effective programs and student services often requires continuity in administrative leadership, he said. That’s one reason he has opted to remain as a dean at Kent State, despite other job opportunities that have come up over recent years.

In 2011, when Kent State was looking for a new provost – a high-ranking university position – Mahony’s qualifications and experience could have made him a natural fit to apply. Instead, he said, he wanted to keep working on several initiatives that weren’t quite finished in his department. He was tapped to lead the school’s provost search committee.

Then, Mahony was in the midst of rolling out a long-term plan for Kent State’s college of education, health and human services. Major benefits included: student enrollment growth of nearly 15 percent over a two-year period; improved retention rates among first-year students; introduction of niche academic programs; reinvigorated fundraising and alumni relations efforts; and creation of an office focused on recruiting minority students.

Now, in applying to be Winthrop’s next president, Mahony says he would be “leaving Kent in good shape ... I want that next challenge.”

Mahony also is a finalist in a presidential search at another university, he told The Herald. That search is private, he said, and he did not disclose the name of the school. He’s also a finalist for the open provost position at Saint Louis University, a private Catholic research school in St. Louis, Mo., that is twice the size of Winthrop.

He’s excited for the opportunity at Winthrop, he said, because “there’s a lot of positive things to build from.”

Major initiatives underway at Winthrop align with his own interests, Mahony said. Those include Winthrop’s partnership with the city of Rock Hill to cultivate a “college town” around the campus; an emphasis on global learning and study-abroad programs for students; and a push to better market the university in hopes of both bringing in more students and more private donations.

Mahony’s work experience with intercollegiate athletics, he says, sets him apart from many other university administrators who have presidential aspirations. The industry – including analysis of the economics of collegiate sports – has been his main area of research since he was in graduate school.

Still, his love of sports and his expertise in collegiate athletics doesn’t mean Mahony would automatically sign off on starting football at Winthrop, he said.

Winthrop’s last president held several meetings about football before she was fired. School trustees haven’t formally taken a stance on football, and employee and student opinion on Eagle football continues to be divided.

Football hasn’t been mentioned during his interviews for the Winthrop presidency, Mahony said, but he’s aware there have been discussions about it in recent years. He would consider it as objectively as any other president, he said, perhaps with even more scrutiny because he understands sport economics.

If football doesn’t make sense for Winthrop, Mahony said, that’s OK, he’ll stick to pulling for the New York Giants and running his fantasy football team. He’s looking to win his fifth fantasy championship.

If chosen to be Winthrop’s next president, Mahony said, anyone wanting to talk football or any other topic would be able to track him down at the West Center fitness facility on campus. As president, the West Center likely would be part of his daily routine – which includes a workout starting around 6 a.m.

“I will be easy to find,” he said.

This story was originally published February 25, 2015 at 9:14 PM with the headline "Finalist Mahony aims to be Winthrop's 'chief happiness officer'."