HMP Welcomes Gwen Archibald

Gwendolyn Archibald became the Director of Student Services and Academic Program Support for the College of Public Health’s Department of Health Management and Policy (HMP) in July of 2017. 

Originally from Davenport, Iowa, Gwen is pursuing a doctoral degree in Higher Education & Student Affairs (HESA) in the College of Education. This degree will join her previous degrees from the University of Iowa, including a master’s degree in Student Development in Postsecondary Education.

Gwen has found her new role in the HMP to be a perfect fit for her, as it affords the opportunity to follow her passion of student development while offering a significant role in the administrative decision-making and direction of the department. These two aspects of her job offer a unique chance to build and expand upon the knowledge she gained from working with graduate students and faculty at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, and Integrated Marketing Communications. During her four years there in professional practice, she also completed a year-long leadership fellowship at Northwestern’s Center for Leadership. During her fellowship, she taught leadership skills, tools, and techniques while also working to refine the “360 Leadership Assessment” ––an aid for students to learn about their leadership and teamwork skills. 

Her fellowship experience served to both reinforce her desire to pursue a PhD in higher education and prepare her for her position in the HMP. Drawing from her leadership background and extensive interaction with highly-motivated, competitive graduate students, Gwen has been able to better understand and, thus, more effectively help the MHA students here. With the primary goal of supporting students, Gwen serves as an out-of-the-classroom educator for the MHAs, seeking to enhance their success through strong professional development.

Gwen has thoroughly enjoyed her new job thus far, stating that working with graduate students always keeps her on her toes––she never quite knows who will wander into her office on any given day. While she finds this aspect of the job most enjoyable, she also cites it as the most challenging due to the sheer variety of students, questions, and concerns. In her first few months with the department she’s traveled with second-year students to Chicago to network with alumni, and helped run the annual Witt/Keiffer networking seminar. Additionally, she helped to organize and run the tremendously successful first annual Alumni Drive-In event––an alumni weekend consisting of speed-networking for the first-year students, healthcare business culture seminars, the annual golf outing, and more.

An ardent Hawkeye fan, Gwen enjoys all things athletic and has a particular affinity for running, kickboxing, volleyball and softball.