Hartwick College Names Delaney Inaugural Director of GCCI
Hartwick College President Margaret L. Drugovich today announced that Dr. Patricia L. (Patti) Delaney has been named the first director of the Griffiths Center for Collaboration and Innovation (GCCI). A social anthropologist, Delaney has extensive experience in program development and evaluation both within and beyond higher education, in the US and internationally.
She joins Hartwick from St. Michael’s College in Colchester, VT, where most recently she served as the inaugural director of its Public Health program. Since Fall, 2019, she has also been special assistant to the vice president of academic affairs for international projects, as well as an associate professor of anthropology at the college.
“Patricia brings to Hartwick well-honed skills in the application of design- and systems-thinking when engaged in the creative change process,” said Drugovich. “There is perfect alignment between Patti’s objectives in this role and our collective, aspirational work. Her passions as an educator and practitioner resonate deeply with our mission.”
Launched in 2018 with a $1.25 million gift from Sally Griffiths Herbert ’88, H’19 and Tim Herbert, the GCCI is an idea incubator and an instigator of innovative approaches and creative problem solving. The Center serves as an umbrella for three Innovation Stations: the Makerspace, Fabrication Lab (Fab Lab), and entrepreneurship hub (E-Hub), where ideas, theory, and practice will support entrepreneurial models of thought and action across the curriculum.
As GCCI director, Delaney will lead and advance a culture of collaboration, innovation, and entrepreneurship at the College. She will also be a member of the College’s Strategic Leadership Team, and lead a cross-campus advisory committee to fully develop and implement the development and delivery of programming that supports creativity and innovation.
“Hartwick College’s forward-thinking vision, innovative approach, and careful delineation of the Center’s many component parts, clearly demonstrates institutional commitment to the transformative power of design thinking and the burgeoning culture of innovation,” Delaney said. “I look forward to the intellectual challenge of pulling together diverse ideas and perspectives, serving as a facilitator to harness others’ ideas and inspiring and motivating strategic and purposeful change.”
Deeply committed to the power of participatory planning to solve real world problems, she assumes her new role at an opportune time to help Hartwick innovate and keep pace with the unprecedented challenges in our country and the world at large. She has spent a large portion of her career conducting international service and fieldwork on the front lines of public health challenges in post-conflict countries like Angola and Brazil. Her international experience includes tenures as a director with the Peace Corps in Tonga and technical advisor to the Ministry of Health of Timor-Leste.
Delaney is also extensively published, and she has conducted numerous training sessions and in the areas of ethnography, gender studies, and research. During her career, she has also received a host of grants and fellowships during her career, including two Fulbright Scholarships.
Delaney earned her bachelor’s degree in foreign service/Latin American studies from Georgetown University. She received a master’s in 1991 and in 1994 a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles in anthropology. She also served a post-doctorate fellowship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
A native of Virginia Beach, VA, Delaney has worked in over 30 countries on every continent except Antarctica. She speaks five languages, and has lived for more than six months in Brazil, Timor-Leste, Tonga, and South Korea.
She is an avid outdoor adventurer, and also enjoys live music, reading, and spending time with her family. Delaney is married and has a nine-year-old son.
Her appointment with the GCCI begins in mid August.