Brian Floyd

Assistant Dean and Associate Director of Academic Affairs, School of Nursing and Health Studies
Age: 45
Hometown: Alameda, Calif.
Time at Georgetown: 12 years

What is your greatest challenge?
The biggest problem now working at Georgetown is having the proper conversations about being able to allocate certain resources to certain things in terms of making sure student services and academic services are provided to students who may need them. We work in a very volatile environment now with, you know, tuition costs and finance so we have to always be conscious in how we’re spending money so that’s very important that we have to allocate out resources for the proper academic things that meet the students’ needs.

What’s the most memorable encounter you’ve had with a student?
One memorable moment was probably be working with a student for a period of four years through their progression of the undergrad and they had high hopes and applying to medical school and actually working with that student to design a plan to come to that conclusion that they could do it, in fact as a nursing student, and I actually saw him progress and actually get to go on to medical school.

What would you be doing if you weren’t working at Georgetown?
I probably would be doing something in regard to project management or company. Something along the lines of helping other students from the back end or from a foundational standpoint like the Gates foundation — helping them to understand the importance of access to college, helping students develop the process of getting into college.

How did you focus your career from communications to education?
My initial career was in marketing and sales for an entertainment company. Part of my role was to design marketing campaigns for various music artists who had releases coming out and part of my role was to work with college students on college campuses to help promote our products. And through that experience and working with them around the country on college projects, I gained an interest in working with them. I found myself helping them kind of talk through what they were experiencing in college, what their degrees and majors were, what their future career opportunities were going into. So I found myself going in through the back door and when I decided to change careers. I made a conscious decision to get into education.

If you could teach a course at Georgetown, what would it be?
It would probably be something that has to do with social determinants of health. I’m very interested in various models and issues around health disparities in different communities, especially minority communities. So I thought it would be something a lot of students should be educated about, now looking at the scientific and genetic issues of health but also the social determinants and community standpoint of health.

What drew you to Georgetown?
The thing that drew me to Georgetown was the location. One, being in the city and the rich history it has in terms of being a long-lasting history and providing quality education but also a Jesuit education. It’s nice being in an environment that’s small and you get to know your students and the reflection piece that goes along with the attainment of the degree. So that was really a big attraction to me. And also, being in the city where not only students can learn, but also practice that and integrate and there are lots of opportunities.

Do you think Georgetown’s Jesuit identity affects how you do your job?
I think because we are constantly thinking about, not only working with students, but optimally trying to get them to get a degree, but also having to think in the context of making choices, a lot of students in our advising sessions or our program planning, we have to work collaboratively and work so that it requires us to think of to be able to incorporate care for others. I think that that Jesuit experience provides the opportunities to do that and the space for it, and students and faculty and staff are a lot more open to working together in that way in a Jesuit institution.

When you first started working here, did you start in the NHS?
No, I was originally working in the registrar’s office.

How is working in the NHS different from the rest of campus?
I think the unique thing about the NHS is the size. The fact that there is a collaborative approach to what we do. In terms of being in a health-centered school, one is unique and, also then working with students who have a desire and passion to want to serve others is what makes us unique. And also, I think it’s an important place because we get to work with students across time, from freshman year to senior year. Our faculty is engaged; you get to know our faculty on a personal level. It’s not just about the actual courses and things, we actually do things collaboratively. We have a small community we have like Fall Ball and Welcome Back Barbecue, and just a very small, collaborative environment set up that I don’t think other places have.

Interview by Michelle Xu