Getting to Know Wayne State’s New Provost, Dr. Christina Bloebaum

As Wayne State University's new provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, Dr. Christina Bloebaum brings experience as an engineer, researcher, faculty member, academic leader and national higher education voice. But there's much more to know about her than what's on her résumé.

A first-generation college student and mother of three, Bloebaum took an unconventional path to higher education leadership before discovering aerospace engineering, conducting research at NASA and eventually becoming a university administrator.

She recently sat down to talk with Today@Wayne.

Q: Before we get into your professional background, how would you introduce yourself to the Wayne State community?

Bloebaum: I'm a mom of three wonderful kids. They're all Gen Z, so it's been interesting as an educator seeing how Gen Z operates in the classroom and then having three of them go through college. My oldest, Brandon, is in New York City and works in computational finance. My son Isaiah is at Kent State University studying applied engineering in foundry technology. My daughter Emma is also at Kent State studying criminal justice, and she wants to be a police officer.

Q: You began your career as an aerospace engineer. What first drew you to engineering?

Bloebaum: My original plan was to go to the Air Force Academy and fly jets. I was very athletic when I was younger and participated in many sports. My father was in the Army, and we lived in Germany between middle of eighth grade through 11th grade giving me a great international perspective.

After we moved to Jacksonville, Florida, I got into surfing and going to the beach and decided I didn't want to pursue the Air Force Academy, since my eyes prevented me from flying. I meandered around for a while, working at the YMCA, as a nanny and as a salesperson. I eventually got bored and decided I needed to get serious about my life.

I went to community college, earned my AA (associate of arts) and transferred to the University of Florida. Aerospace engineering was the closest thing to what I originally wanted to do because I wanted to be an astronaut.

Q: You were a first-generation college student. How did that experience shape you?

Bloebaum: I was first gen; my parents didn't know how any of this worked, and I certainly didn't either. My friend and I both struggled our first year at the University of Florida. We had been great students, but we were put into all the toughest 'weed-out' classes at once.

We went away that summer and asked ourselves whether we should go back. We both decided to return and then had very successful academic careers.

Later, an aerospace structures instructor introduced me to optimization - how you design something to make it the best. I thought, 'This is so cool. How can I do more of this?' He suggested I stay as a graduate student. I did, eventually earning my master's and Ph.D. and conducting research at NASA Langley.

That experience of being clueless about how higher education works is something I carry with me. There are so many opportunities available to students that they may not know about simply because no one has told them.

Q: How do your experiences as a researcher, faculty member and administrator inform how you approach university leadership?

Bloebaum: Fundamentally, I'm a systems person. My research has always been about systems and multidisciplinary design optimization - how you design something to be optimal when it's very complex and everything is interconnected.

A university is absolutely a complex system. And the complexity goes beyond the institution itself because it's embedded in a community and, as a public university, part of a state system.

My different roles have given me perspectives at the federal, state and local levels. They've helped me understand who we're serving, the complexity of the organization, and how it interfaces with the state and federal governments.

Q: What advice have you received that has stayed with you?

Bloebaum: Interestingly, it's advice I completely ignored.

When I was an assistant professor, I was bringing faculty together to pursue large grants and leading initiatives. A faculty member told me, 'Assistant professors, don't do that. You need to stop doing that and just focus on tenure.'

I ignored that advice, and it has really informed how I talk with junior faculty. I believe junior faculty absolutely should be leaders - leaders in their units and at the university, as long as they keep their eye on what they need to accomplish for tenure.

They shouldn't close themselves off in their office and just do research, publish papers and teach. They should have a voice and help change the direction of their unit and university for the better.

Q: What qualities do you value most in the people you work with?

Bloebaum: Integrity and genuineness. I value people who are strategic thinkers, not just tactical thinkers. Can we understand the bigger picture and how people fit together so we can make decisions that have the highest probability of producing the outcome we want?

And, on a more human level, someone I would want to go to lunch or coffee with. That tells you a lot about the people you want to work with and collaborate with.

Q: What attracted you to Wayne State and Detroit?

Bloebaum: I actually wasn't applying for provost positions. A search firm contacted me multiple times, and I kept saying no. Eventually, a colleague encouraged me to talk with them and said, 'Christina, this is you.'

I started looking into Detroit and became excited about the opportunity. Before my first interview, my oldest son came to town, and we drove to Detroit and walked around campus. I thought, 'This is a beautiful campus.' It wasn't what I had imagined a campus in Detroit would look like.

Then I met the search committee, and everyone was so friendly and genuine. I met President Bierschbach and saw his humility and brilliance. At that point, I was all in. I thought, 'Oh yes, this is the place.'

Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities facing public research universities today?

Bloebaum: There are many. There's a little bit of disintegration of the faith in higher education by the American public. There are also important questions about return on investment. Universities have a responsibility tostudents, especially as they take on debt, to support their success so can transition to meaningful careers.

At the same time, there are enormous opportunities with emerging technologies - AI, robotics, virtual and augmented reality, drones, cybersecurity, and quantum computing. These technologies are going to change the way people live and work.

Wayne State has been thinking about these issues for years. There's a tremendous opportunity now to coordinate what's happening across campus and be more strategic about it.

Q: What does student success mean to you?

Bloebaum: Higher education is about creating opportunity and producing people who can think critically about challenging subjects. Employers want critical thinkers.

We shouldn't simply train students for one job that may not exist in four years. We need to help them learn how to learn, make decisions under uncertainty, and remain flexible and agile as the world changes.

I like to distinguish between a job and a career. We're not training students to go out and have jobs. We're training them to have careers throughout their lives and to be able to adjust as times change.

Q: What role can Wayne State play in research that matters to society?

Bloebaum: Being in Detroit is one of the things that attracted me. Wayne State is deeply connected to its community, and every unit has an opportunity to connect its work to that environment. That's why, during my interview, I took the vision statement about being a premier urban public institution and made it 'the premier urban institution.' Everything is here to be able to do that.

Q: What's something about you that your new colleagues might be surprised to learn?

Bloebaum: I was an avid skier. I learned to ski in high school in Austria while we were living in Germany, and I continued skiing when I went to the University of Florida. In fact, I chose my first higher education appointment at the University of Buffalo based partly on how close it was to ski slopes.

I've skied pretty much all over the country. I love mountains, I love snow and winter is my favorite season.

Q: What do you like to do when you're not working?

Bloebaum: So much of my life was wrapped up in my kids, but I love to read and I also write. My dream is to publish a novel. I've written a couple, so we'll see. Maybe someday my name will be on a book.

I read pretty much everything except romance. I particularly enjoy Westerns and crime stories. Right now, I'm reading What We Keep Forgetting About Technology, which focuses on AI and other emerging technologies and their impact on society. I also have Lonesome Dove by my bedside.

Q: Finally, what would you like the Wayne State community to know as you begin this new role?

Bloebaum: I'm just excited and truly honored to be here. I really am. I'm excited to meet everyone and get around campus.