BC3 selects Mack as dean of business division
A Butler County Community College graduate instrumental in the creation of summer enrichment camps for children at BC3, who later earned master’s degrees in fields that include business administration, has been named dean of the college’s largest academic division.
Sherri Mack, who achieved a master of science degree in database technologies and systems engineering, and a master of business administration degree with a concentration in marketing from Regis University, Denver, has been chosen to oversee a BC3 business division that offers students 23 associate degree, certificate or workplace certificate options.
Mack, of Butler, is also graduate of Butler Senior High School, BC3 and Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. In addition to serving as an instructor and later as coordinator of BC3’s Kids on Campus program, Mack taught in the college’s Workforce Development division and as a faculty member in its business division.
The recipient of local and multistate teaching awards has served as the business division’s interim dean since Dr. Chris Ola stepped down as dean in July 2019.
“Sherri has worked her way up at the organization,” said Nick Neupauer, president of BC3. “She has held a variety of different positions in a lot of different areas of the college. She not only loves BC3, but she also understands the college from a variety of different aspects. Sherri has been awarded for her excellence in the classroom, which is important as a leader in our academic divisions.”
Mack in 2017 was selected to receive a teaching excellence award in Region 2 of the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs for teaching and learning, professional development, institutional versatility, curriculum development and community commitment.
Region 2 in 2017 encompassed Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. BC3’s business programs are accredited by the council.
Mack also was chosen in 2013 as a United Way of Butler County Red Apple Award winner for exemplifying leadership and for outstanding dedication to students and the community.
The college also recognized Mack with an Above and Beyond Award in 2016 for her work on the college’s Middle States Commission on Higher Education Self-Study. Above and Beyond Awards reflect a dedication to excellence initiative that Neupauer began in fall 2013. BC3 is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
“One of the things that contributes to Sherri being a good leader within the BC3 family is her institutional knowledge from the various roles in which she has had the opportunity to serve,” said Dr. Belinda Richardson, the college’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. “That gives her a good view about various stakeholders and what their expectations and needs are. She is able to look at things from varied perspectives.”
Mack achieved an associate degree in computer programming from BC3 and a bachelor’s degree in information technology from Slippery Rock. She began at BC3 as an instructor, teaching noncredit computer courses in the college’s Lifelong Learning division in 1995.
She later assisted Cynthia McCabe, former director of BC3’s Lifelong Learning division, in creating programs for the college’s Kids on Campus program, which began in 1998. Mack later became coordinator of the program that today offers kindergarteners through eighth-graders summer camps in art, cooking, engineering, do-it-yourself, robotics, self-improvement and sports.
More than 8,100 seats were occupied in the college’s summer enrichment program for children between 2015 and 2022, said Paul Lucas, director of BC3’s Lifelong Learning division.
Mack now oversees BC3 faculty members who are certified public accountants and who have worked as programmers, in sales, as entrepreneurs and office managers, and with engineering firms.
“What I’ve known for the past 20-odd years of working within the division and in the institution is that this group of faculty members are all about finding out what it takes to get the job done,” Mack said. “They are innovative. They bring in concepts from their disciplines, because they are connected. They’re business. They know business changes, and they are not afraid to change with it.”
Business is the college’s largest division, with 12 career programs, nine certificate or workplace certificate programs, and two transfer programs.
Business administration was the division’s most popular program among new students and the division’s most popular among all BC3 students as of Aug. 8, according to Sharla Anke, the college’s assistant dean of institutional research and planning.
The 60-credit transfer program is available on BC3’s main campus, and at BC3 @ Armstrong, near Ford City; BC3 @ Brockway, in Brockway; BC3 @ Cranberry, in Cranberry Township; BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing, in New Castle; and BC3 @ LindenPointe, in Hermitage.
Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.
