5 Questions with CEHD Dean Shelbie Witte

If you were away from UND and CEHD for the summer, you may not have realized that CEHD has a new dean. Dr. Shelbie Witte, a native of Stillwater, Oklahoma, assumed the deanship of the college on July 1 of this year. The Grand Forks Herald stopped by the college and interviewed her for a story that ran in August. However, we wanted to try to get to know her as a person just a little bit better. Dean Witte agreed to participate in our get-to-know-you segment that we call…

5 Questions: Dean Shelbie Witte

1. When did you decide to pursue a career in education? Was there a particular
moment of decision for you?

I was born to be an educator, even though I initially majored in accounting. When I was a young child, my grandmother would often babysit me and I loved spending time with her.

One of my favorite memories was sharing the green metal porch swing with her as she read to me from my favorite children’s books. However, she wasn’t reading to me as one might expect, but would orally share the stories of the illustrations as the pages turned,
as I came to discover she could not read.

All through kindergarten and 1st grade, I would take home all of the lessons I learned and replicate them with my grandmother. I guess
you could say I taught my grandmother to read, but more importantly, we learned to read together.

2. Describe your role and what you do for the college…to an alien from another planet.

To extend the metaphor further, if a university is a fleet of spaceships, a dean of a college is the captain of one of the spaceships… a beautifully diverse spaceship.

Just as a spaceship embarks on a journey through space, a college is a place where students embark on a journey of exploration and discovery. Instead of exploring distant planets and galaxies, students explore new ideas, knowledge, and personal growth. A spaceship is operated by a diverse crew, each with specialized roles (pilots, engineers, scientists).

Similarly, CEHD consists of students, professors, administrators, and staff, each contributing their expertise to UND’s success. In a spaceship, mission control is essential for navigation and ensuring the journey is successful. In CEHD, this role is played by administrators, such as department chairs, coordinators, and academic advisors, who help guide students and ensure the institution runs smoothly.

Spaceships often represent the pinnacle of human innovation and problem-solving. Colleges are similar in that they are centers of innovation, where students and faculty work together to solve problems, whether they be academic, societal, or technological.

3. How do you handle stress? What tips do you have for students who are overwhelmed or struggling?

I think it’s important to know that everyone feels stress and struggles with balancing the feelings of being overwhelmed with work and life. Handling stress is unique to each person’s individual needs, I think, but I would start with prioritizing self-care and ensuring a balance of exercise, sleep, and good nutrition.

I often will go for a walkabout just to clear my head and re-center when I’m feeling overwhelmed with big deadlines or important decisions. Many folks I admire depend on mindfulness techniques and yoga and I hope to someday be able to do so effectively, but my inner voice is way too sassy and loud to make the techniques work for me. I also believe turning off social media channels from time to time is critical to focus and to recenter. But most of all, I believe everyone needs to have an established relationship with a mental health professional, much like we do with our primary care physicians, and establish the relationship early on, even when things are going well, so that when things feel stressful we aren’t also stressed about making a new contact or relationship in order to be heard.

4. If you could have any superhero power, what would it be and why?

That’s easy – teleportation. I would be able to see family, friends, and loved ones whenever we could and avoid long airport layovers🙂

5. Finally, if you could choose one song to play every time you walked into a room, what would you choose and why?

Everyone needs a walk-up song, right? Depending on the situation, it would likely be “She’s Country” by Jason Aldean or “My Shot” from Hamilton.

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With 5 Questions answered, Dean Witte is looking forward to meeting many in the CEHD community in the weeks and months to come. To her, we say: Welcome to North Dakota!

Did we miss anything? Email und.ehd@UND.edu with story ideas, news, and events that celebrate our college.

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