President Bernotsky is a tremendous leader and the perfect person to take West Chester into the future. She is highly regarded throughout the State System for her strategic planning, commitment to students, and ability to see the big picture. She served with distinction as the interim president for PennWest University and I’m excited to see her continue to advance West Chester’s reputation as a great university.
— Dr. Daniel Greenstein
Chancellor, Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE)

As you read this, R. Lorraine (Laurie) Bernotsky is in the first weeks of her role as West Chester University’s 16th president.

Every day, she walks into Philips Memorial Building through the arch that faces High Street at University Avenue. It’s a path she’s returned to after spending 20 months at Pennsylvania Western University (PennWest) as a loaned executive, first as executive vice president and chief operating officer, then as acting president, and, from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, as interim president.

In returning to WCU, Dr. Bernotsky acknowledges that both she and WCU have changed, noting, “I have to re-learn a lot about WCU and I intend to listen.”

Lifting every student

Dr. Bernotsky often says, “We proudly educate the 99%,” referring to the majority of college-bound students. A first-generation college graduate herself, she emphasizes that scholarships enabled her “to be the product of private education but it was on the largesse of donors. I never forgot that. I knew when I graduated that I wanted to be in public higher education, to bring that private education experience to the public higher ed setting because I knew I was really fortunate.”

We all have to work together as a community to ensure our students’ educational success. That makes us all educators.
- Dr. Laurie Bernotsky
President, West Chester University

That’s the genesis for Dr. Bernotsky’s concept that “WCU will provide private education outcomes for every student. Higher education remains the great equalizer, more than any other variable, especially public higher education,” she insists. “It has the greatest potential to change a person’s personal and professional outcomes.”

To that end, the University signed on to the Moon Shot for Equity mission in 2021. “It’s probably the most strategically important decision we have made recently,” says Dr. Bernotsky. “We need to remain committed to that as a central principle for West Chester moving forward.”

The Moon Shot for Equity is a national public-private partnership in which participating institutions identify and rectify achievement gaps for all students, especially those from underrepresented groups.

“For me, Moon Shot for Equity means lifting all boats on a rising tide. It means every student should have equal likelihood of achieving the outcomes of the highest performing students by cohort. It is critical for us as an institution and an important strategic outcome that we can achieve in the long term.”

She considers every employee at the University as a member of her team and part of the “community of educators that develops graduates to succeed personally and professionally and contribute to the common good,” which is WCU’s mission. “We need to realize that we all play a central role in the educational success of our students.”

From academics to mental health to financial aid and more, academic success for WCU means not only being accessible, but being “student-ready” by intentionally identifying and erasing equity gaps and obstacles to achievement. “We all have to work together as a community to ensure our students’ educational success. That makes us all educators.”

Continuity and stability

There’s a sense of continuity she shares with WCU’s immediate past president, Dr. Christopher Fiorentino. Dr. Bernotsky worked side-by-side with him and calls him one of her long-time mentors.

“Chris has always said, ‘The University is the people,’ that we are all the face of West Chester to anyone who sets foot on campus. How people experience all of us as WCU employees says everything about our institution.

“He recognized something in me pretty early on and as my dean, he gave me freedom to lead,” she recalls. “He supported me in founding the Center for Social and Economic Policy Research, introducing me to members of the community and helping to find research projects early on that helped build up our reputation as a research center. … Chris created the role of executive vice president and put me in it. What faith he had in me to give me that opportunity — it’s humbling. I understand his strategy and approach and he entrusted me to execute his strategic vision as president.”

That strategic vision is a solid foundation on which she will build WCU’s future as the current strategic plan, “Reimagining Student Success: Building on WCU’s Momentum,” concludes at the end of the 2024-25 academic year.

Currently, Dr. Bernotsky is convening a transition team comprising faculty, staff, and students to help identify the goals and priorities of the institution. “We have the resources to leverage WCU’s strengths, take some risks to better serve our students, the region, the workforce needs, the Commonwealth because we have a strong financial foundation.”

WCU’s new president has been in a unique position in higher education. It’s unusual for a university administrator to be both the chief operating officer and the chief academic officer, but Dr. Bernotsky has served in both roles simultaneously since 2017.

“That allows me to think about the academic goals of the institution, but also about our resources and how we leverage, enhance, and diversify our revenue streams, how to ensure we spend our money the right way. That’s a lens I have that not everyone has. It gives me a broader perspective as a president having served across divisions in that sense.”

Margaret Ervin, president of the WCU faculty union chapter (APSCUF), notes, “Laurie is really good working with the budget. She masterminded the budget and long-range planning, taking a leadership role with the state system.”

Another unique fact: Dr. Bernotsky has had two WCU presidents as mentors.

“Way back when I was still faculty, Dr. Madeleine Wing Adler [WCU president 1992– 2008] was a wonderful mentor who planted the seed about being an administrator.” Dr. Bernotsky says the linear path she planned to an administrative role hit a few obstacles, “but I kept pushing to find new ways to serve.”

It’s also unusual that Drs. Bernotsky and Fiorentino shared similar career paths to the WCU presidency, coming up through the faculty. Dr. Ervin says that’s important because “Laurie understands what public higher education is, that it takes a whole faculty and an array of programs to create a strong undergraduate degree to prepare a person for being a citizen.”

Dr. Ervin is confident that Dr. Bernotsky’s leadership skills and emphasis on shared governance will nimbly guide WCU and she is appreciative of Dr. Bernotsky’s eye on longterm solutions regarding economics, stability, and higher ed trends.

“As APSCUF president [WCU chapter], I work with Laurie and she makes clear where she stands and is fair and transparent. She understands the collective bargaining agreement, that it’s a shared document, and the basis for faculty governance. Every discipline knows that they’re valued.”

Laurie understands what public higher education is, that it takes a whole faculty and an array of programs to create a strong undergraduate degree to prepare a person for being a citizen.
- Dr. Margaret Ervin
President of the WCU faculty union chapter (APSCUF)

Scott Heinerichs, dean of the College of Health Sciences and special assistant to the provost, calls Dr. Bernotsky “a data-driven leader. She embodies that — to inform the conversation, not to drive it.

“She is one of those leaders who creates the opportunity for others to step into their brilliance.”

“Laurie has always been a leader on campus,” adds Kristen Crossney, professor and director of the doctor in public administration program. “She is a truly thoughtful listener who is generous with her time, expertise, insight, and advice. … As provost she invested in faculty scholarship and improved how we evaluate and support faculty during their initial and evaluation times. She understands our faculty’s dedication to student success.”

PennWest: Bi-directional lessons learned

PASSHE Chancellor Daniel Greenstein initially asked Dr. Bernotsky to serve at PennWest as a loaned executive beginning in October 2022. PennWest was established July 1, 2022, to integrate California, Clarion, and Edinboro universities, creating one unified university without losing the individual identities of each campus. Through June 2023, Dr. Bernotsky worked collaboratively as executive vice president and chief operating officer to help strengthen PennWest’s operational excellence, strategic enrollment management systems, and long-term plans for financial sustainability. She was named interim president of PennWest only four months after her appointment as PennWest’s acting president and following the retirement of PennWest founding president Dr. Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson.

It was truly a reciprocal relationship, she emphasizes, noting that she brought the community of educators concept with her. “Our colleagues at PennWest are working really hard on the integration — and they continue to serve students. We are bringing back lessons learned,” for example, PennWest has had to “work meticulously on mapping the faculty complement to the academic program array and they’ve done that remarkably well, making very clear matches between faculty resources and the programs that are being delivered as part of their path to financial sustainability.”

Dr. Heinerichs has also been a loaned executive to PennWest and served as Dr. Bernotsky’s special assistant there. As a WCU faculty associate for teaching, learning, and assessment and with his expertise in specialized and regional accreditation, he worked with her on that specific mapping task and will help her bring that lesson back to WCU.

He adds that, “The shared governance and transparency that have been a hallmark at WCU weren’t in place at PennWest. Laurie put communication at the fore, brought people to the table, treated them with dignity, value, and respect so they would feel safe to share in the conversation. She is practical, listens to all viewpoints, and allows others’ perspectives to be heard.”

She is one of those leaders who creates the opportunity for others to step into their brilliance.
- Dr. Scott Heinerichs
Dean of the College of Health Sciences

Kenneth Mash, ASPCUF president, summarized Dr. Bernotsky’s influence at PennWest at the May 22, 2024, state system Board of Governors meeting: “My colleagues at PennWest feel that during Dr. Laurie Bernotsky’s time as interim president, she restored a sense of competence, openness, and collegiality. … The university for the first time was beginning to build a strong culture of shared governance. … Interim President Bernotsky put forward a rational plan to restore that university and make sure it had a sound future. My colleagues … want to maintain the momentum that was built under her leadership.”

Leadership in Action

Shared governance supports WCU’s agility to anticipate and respond to new and changing situations and Dr. Bernotsky says shared governance will remain at the fore of her presidency, along with transparency.

She remains committed to treating everyone with dignity, value, and respect and cites two adages to describe her leadership style. One is from Maya Angelou: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” The other is, “There’s room at the table for everybody to feel like they’re achieving their best, being their best selves. I want every student, every employee, to feel like they’re doing that.” "I fell in love with WCU when I first came to this campus many years ago and I want every student to fall in love with WCU, too."