New VP for Enrollment Management Named at Duquesne University

President Ken Gormley has announced that Joel Bauman has been selected to serve as vice president for enrollment management at the University. Bauman will begin transitioning into the role in late June 2020.

Bauman succeeds Paul-James Cukanna, who has served in the role since 2016, and has worked in enrollment management at Duquesne for 19 years. Cukanna will retire in August 2020.

“We are thrilled to have attracted as strong an enrollment and executive professional as Joel to Duquesne. His track record of attracting students in this competitive time, contributing to strategic management of higher education institutions and contributing to his profession at the national level all will help Duquesne enormously,” Gormley said. “We look forward very much to welcoming Joel to campus and to his leadership in the good work of finding students who want to attend Duquesne.”

Bauman currently is vice president for enrollment management at Stetson University, a position he has held since 2011. Previously, he was vice president for enrollment at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah, and before that served in dean positions in admissions and financial aid at New College of Florida in Sarasota, the University of Tampa and the New York office of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Bauman was selected after a national search led by Julie Tea and Julie Williams-Krishnan of Storbeck Search & Associates, a national executive search firm focused on institutions of higher education and nonprofit organizations. Guided by Tea and Williams-Krishnan, a search committee at the University interviewed more than a dozen semi-finalist candidates and recommended finalists to the president for selection.

“Joel’s varied background and track record of success set him apart from the many great candidates we attracted in our national search,” said Duquesne Provost Dr. David Dausey. “I am delighted to start working with Joel to build on the great work our enrollment management team already does.”

In the last dozen years at Stetson, Bauman has led a team that achieved record new student enrollments, diversified the student body and attracted students with top academic credentials, most recently growing first-year applications to 13,000 from 4,500. Undergraduate enrollment grew 46 percent under his leadership, and net tuition revenue grew by 34 percent.

“I am deeply honored to be entrusted with contributing to Duquesne University,” Bauman said. “I look forward to partnering with such high-quality faculty and talented students to promote the academic excellence and Spiritan values of Duquesne. The mission of serving students so they may better serve their community and the world is very inspiring.”

Currently serving on the editorial board of the publication NAFSA: International Enrollment Management Spotlight, Bauman has previously served as the 2011-2012 chair of the Enrollment Management Affinity group for the New American Colleges and Universities Consortium, and as a board member of the Admissions and Enrollment Services Advisory Group of the College Board from 2013-2015. Bauman is a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and other higher education professional organizations.

An active volunteer, Bauman has served in the community as vice president of strategy and board member at the Jewish Federations of Utah, respectively. He earned his undergraduate degree in anthropology and biology from the University of Denver and a master’s degree at the New School for Social Research in New York.

Early in his career, Bauman worked as an archeological technician for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Arizona, a museum technician at the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island National Monument in New York and as a seasonal archeologist at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona. He served two years in the 1990s as assistant director on the International Youth and Education Department at the Jewish National Fund in Jerusalem. Bauman also received a fellowship to the National Foundation for Jewish Culture in Israel and The Lady Davis Fellowship Trust at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and has authored papers for several conferences.

Bauman is father to three daughters, ages 22, 19 and 14.