Onward and upward with Juliana Walsh

By Eric McHenry

Earning an M.B.A. while working a 40-hour-a-week job must be taxing. But Juliana Walsh wouldn't know.

She earned hers, says Dean of Arts and Sciences and Provost Dennis Berkey, while working "much more than 40 hours a week. She's typically here on Saturdays and Sundays."

Such initiative was one of the reasons Berkey recently promoted Walsh from CAS/GRS assistant dean for business affairs to associate dean for administrative affairs -- a significant compliment for someone only 31 years old.

"It's more than aptitude being recognized," Berkey says. "It's achievement. She's run a really big budget and has done it extremely well. She operates an office with a good spirit of collegiality and with a certain measure of calmness that's very impressive for the amount of work going on. We're building on demonstrated performance."

While retaining responsibility for the financial, personnel, facilities, and information technology functions of the business office, Walsh will take on additional duties within the graduate school, including oversight of the offices of admissions, financial assistance, and student records. And counter to what one might expect of a person moving higher in the administrative ranks, Walsh expects more frequent contact with students in her new role. She hopes to work directly with graduate student groups in addressing their concerns, such as the need for orientation of teaching fellows and for fundraising to support travel to academic conferences.

"We want our graduate students to be happy and to get the best possible service," says Walsh. "We can make sure their applications get processed and their records are up-to-date and they get their financial aid, but I think that getting involved with some of their initiatives gives them the sense that we're really here for their benefit."

Juliana Walsh was recently named CAS/GRS associate dean for administrative affairs, her 5th promotion in 10 years. Photo by Vernon Doucette

Walsh says she feels "very pleased, very honored," and "completely overwhelmed" by her new appointment.

"I have a great staff in the business office," she says, "and I've been working more closely with the staff in the graduate school over the past couple of months. I couldn't do it if these people weren't in place.

"In particular, I have two managers who are going to assume some more of my responsibilities for the business office -- Paula Wasson and Richard Wright. Without them I definitely couldn't take this on."

The relative smoothness of the transition, Berkey says, is yet further evidence that Walsh's promotion is well-deserved. As she prepared for her new role, she helped her colleagues do the same.

"She has groomed her staff behind her to assume responsibilities in the business office," he says, "so that she can allocate what time she needs to shift to these graduate school issues. That's an important mark of managerial talent."

Walsh has earned regular promotions since coming to the business office in 1990, shortly after receiving her B.A. in psychology from Williams College. In her first four years, she ascended from staff analyst to financial assistant, then to financial administrator, then to manager of financial administration, and, at age 25, to the assistant dean's position.

"I came to BU because I thought it would be a great place to get some tuition benefits," she says. "When I fell into my first job, as staff analyst, I was doing some finance work, and I really liked it. I took a couple of accounting classes through MET, and I just realized I had found my niche. I decided I liked it so much I would enroll in the M.B.A. program."

Though it now seems like a perfect fit, Walsh insists she never envisioned herself in anything resembling her current role.

"I just feel that I was at the right place at the right time," she says, "and some nice opportunities opened up for me."