Office of the Dean

A message from Acting Dean Michael R. L. Carey, Ph.D.

On behalf of the faculty, staff, and students in the School of Professional Studies, I am delighted to welcome you to our transformative learning community. The Jesuit educational tradition to which we belong has always been about adapting the learning experience we guarantee to the real needs of our students, and our School takes this mission seriously.

Our reputation for innovation began when Ignatius of Loyola (the founder of the Jesuits) returned to grammar school at age 30 (the first non-traditional, adult student!), continued when he created a religious community that was neither monastic nor mendicant, and expanded when he educated lay people even though they were not interested in becoming members of his religious community. He enthusiastically embraced using the relatively new technology known as the printing press. After Ignatius, the Jesuits continued this innovative approach by creating hospices for women, unique communities in Latin America, translations of the gospels and the liturgy into indigenous languages, all the while educating people to be conscious of injustice and to challenge oppressive authority structures (which ultimately led to suppression of the Jesuit order and the martyrdom of many Jesuits).

The School of Professional Studies at Gonzaga continues this tradition of innovation through its concern for the adult learner and the working professional, by its use of cutting-edge technology to facilitate the learning experience, and by its support of trans-disciplinary academic programs and the integration of a liberal arts education with professional development.

The programs in our School focus on the study of health and leadership and the synergy created by the interactions between those two areas. Undergraduate offerings in the School of Professional Studies include the Comprehensive Leadership Program (CLP), Human Physiology, and Nursing. Graduate programs include Nursing, Organizational Leadership, Communication and Leadership, and the Ph.D. program in Leadership Studies. Our students engage in the unique Gonzaga learning experience both in on-campus, face-to-face classes and in distance-based, online courses.  Whatever the medium in which the learning experience happens, the educational tradition of Jesuit schools for 450 years has been grounded in three key dynamics: Experience, Reflection, Action.

• Experience means that learners gather and recollect the material of their own experiences in order to distill their understanding of the facts, feelings, values, insights, and intuitions they bring to the subject matter at hand. 

• Reflection means that memories, understanding, imagination, and feelings are used to grasp the essential meaning and value of what is being studied, to discover their relationship to other facets of human knowledge and activity, and to appreciate their implications in the continuing search for truth.

• Action means that opportunities are provided to challenge the imagination and exercise the will of the learners, so they choose the best possible course of action to flow from and follow up on what they have learned.

It is my hope that this tradition of innovation excites you as much as it does us. We look forward to your becoming a part of our community of learning.

Best regards,
Michael R. L. Carey, Ph.D.
Acting Dean

School of Professional Studies, Tilford Center,
111 E. Desmet, Spokane, WA 99258
Phone: (509) 313-3569
Email: zaranski@gu.gonzaga.edu