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What They Don’t Teach You in Graduate School: Supervising Professional Staff

What They Don’t Teach You in Graduate School: Supervising Professional Staff

Includes a Live Web Event on 03/26/2025 at 1:00 PM (EDT)

Supervision plays a critical role in addressing staff retention, burnout, and professional growth in student affairs. NASPA’s 2022 Compass Report identified developing supervisory capacity as a key area for growth, with less than half of surveyed professionals feeling adequately prepared to take on additional supervisory responsibilities.

This webinar will explore how supervision differs from mentorship and counseling, how to build effective supervisory relationships, and what staff need from their supervisors. Using a clinical supervision framework, participants will develop skills in establishing boundaries, setting goals and expectations, fostering competency development, conducting performance reviews, and navigating difficult conversations.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Understanding the parameters to a supervisory relationship, and how supervision differs from mentorship and coaching; 
  2. How to supervise both up and down (what does your supervisor and your supervisee need from you in supervision); and,  
  3. How to provide informal and formal feedback, and how your supervision impacts staff development and culture.

Tierney Bates

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs

University of South Carolina Upstate

Dr. Tierney J. Bates has established himself as national thought leader, speaker, networker, career coach, innovator, and voice on diversity, equity, inclusion, and GENERATION NOW! He has given over 215 keynote talks, presentations and workshops. With over 20+ years in higher education, he has progressed from entry level to senior level administration providing leadership, vision, and responsibility for strategic initiatives and solutions in student services, diversity & inclusion, career services/workforce development, recruitment, and fundraising. He is currently the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at the University of South Carolina Upstate and was formerly at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Special Projects & Executive Director and has served in leadership roles at Virginia Union University, North Carolina Central University, University of Louisville, University of Tennessee, and Bowling Green State University.

Nicholas Kehrwald

Dean of Students / Deputy Title IX Coordinator

USC Upstate

Nick Kehrwald is a 15+ year student affairs professional with a career focused on improving student programs and services using process improvement principles to drive more equitable student success outcomes, including being the inaugural Director of the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards at the University of Kansas, restructuring the Dean of Students Office at the University of Kentucky, integrating student wellbeing programs and services at USC Upstate, and has collaborating on first-year experience and institutional-level student success efforts at multiple institutions.  Nick’s previous experience include being the Associate Dean of Students and Dean of Students at the University of Kentucky, the Director of Student Conduct and Community Standards at the University of Kansas, and a Student Conduct Coordinator at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas.  Nick has a Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa, a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from the University of Missouri, and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Cognitive Science from Lehigh University.  Nick is currently a doctoral student in the Educational Innovation and Practice – Systems Improvement program at the University of South Carolina – Columbia. 

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