Honoring a Legacy: Fielding’s Longest-Serving President, Dr. Katrina S. Rogers, Retires

A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Welcome to 2025! I begin this year’s Letter from the President with two quotes for collective consideration. Maslow’s remark calls to mind a person with a foot poised over a path, about to decide: forward or back, into change or not? Mandela’s statement reminds us that the vehicle of change is education. In a similar spirit of reflection, I took time at the end of December to write about the passing of the year just concluded and the possible road ahead for Fielding. I often think of the saying attributed to Buddha that the past is behind us and the future unknown; therefore, we only have the present. Yet, the past and future are always entangled in the present. We relive the past every day, either intentionally through revisiting memories or subconsciously by using our experience to navigate the present. We bring the future into our present through our daydreaming and planning.

As it is with human beings, it is also with institutions such as this University. We at Fielding are proud of our history. We bring the past into our work every day as we enact our values to be advocates for lifelong learning by offering quality graduate educational experiences. Within this devotion to relying on the enduring qualities of the past that we wish to retain, we are also future-focused.

Fielding is facing its own transformation. This month, we will welcome new faculty and new students. We will congratulate new graduates and invite new staff into our workspace. Simultaneously, others will leave the university. A university culture enables this kind of change as that is part of the life of an educational institution. These past years, however, the pace and scale of change have accelerated, both within Fielding and in our society. That level of transformation can be unsettling. Maslow reminds us, do we grow or hesitate? Do we live in this present, or do we allow both the past and the future to hold us back? Or do we decide that education is indeed the vehicle for change, and we step into that idea with vigor and enthusiasm?

Trained as a historian, I have been reflecting on what the historians of the future will say about Fielding. I suspect that they will focus on the work of our faculty and graduates and on the collective impact that Fielding scholars, practitioners, and activists have made on understanding the critical behavioral and social issues of our times. I like to think historians will point to the current Fielding of their moment with respect and affection. To imagine ourselves in such a future requires united commitment on the part of every Fielding community member: staff, faculty, students, trustees, alumni, and those individuals we have yet to meet.

Fielding needs to grow with innovative programs in social and behavioral sciences. We need to develop our centers and initiatives, to invite an ever-expanding and diverse audience into our community. We need to invigorate ourselves by pursuing new avenues of research that expand our scholarship and practice. We need to accelerate the path we are on right now while holding on to what is important — our place as a graduate school for adult learners. We must rely on our founding values during these times of change, which remind us that our work involves building a strong learning community together, one predicated on the possibility of transformation, dedicated to the principles of diversity and social and ecological justice. As I listen to your stories and your reasons for being a member of the Fielding community, I can see that we are accomplishing all these tasks set out before us, one incremental step after another, building our community as we go. For that, I am proud of the University that we all have a hand in creating each day.

This is my last letter in FOCUS as Fielding’s president. As I return to the community as a faculty member in the Human and Organization Development program, I would like to thank you all for your support of me personally, your strength as a community, and your kindness to each other as we continue on this path of change, leading to our own transformation as an institution. As Fielding continues to change, I know Interim President John L. Bennett will continue to lead Fielding with its mission and values foremost in mind, focusing always on advancing quality graduate educational experience for adult learners.

Wishing you a peaceful 2025, and I look forward to seeing many of you virtually or in person as we move through the rest of the year.

With warm regards,

Katrina S. Rogers, PhD
President